Cottage and Photo-shoot

On Saturday, my mother, grandmother and I all went up to the cottage for a few days. It was quite last minute but despite a lack of planning it was a lot of fun. There was a new antique store on the drive up. I am getting a lovely magazine from the 1920's for my birthday :) but I will have to wait until June to scan any of it (it's being hidden away until my actual birthday...).

Anyways, here is the outfit I wore on the way up. Not your average cottage wear but it was nice for the drive up there.

Today, my friend Britt came over for a little photo-shoot. My mom gave me some of her old lights for portrait photography so I wanted to experiment a little. Luckily for me, Britt was happy to volunteer to be my model. Here are a few of my favourite shots. (Sorry Britt for the last one but I love that picture!)

New Clothes, New Shoes, and Old Lace

My cousins came over for my mothers birthday a couple weeks ago but I only just remembered I took a picture of the table setting. I am completely in love with the lace table runner. I was searching for table linens and I found it stuffed in a drawer. My mom thinks it belonged to her grandmother.

For a centre piece I gathered a bunch of antique glass bottles and filled them with forget-me-nots. They are by far my favourite flower and our gardens have grown wild with them. I must remember to pick some more for my room.

The property search continues so I haven't had much time for shopping, but I managed a trip to the Softmoc warehouse outlet this morning. Yay shoes! (I am hopelessly in love with the boots. They were more money than I should have spent but I was too smitten to leave them)

And now as promised, some pictures of my latest sewing creations. I am still working on the slippers and 1950's jacket but as soon as they near completion pictures will be posted
Skirt-Made by me!
Shirt- Designer Depot

Dress- Made by me without using a pattern :)


And after nearly a year of not working on the hat, I sat down and finished it! It is a gift for my friend Jesse and it turned out much better than expected.

Book Review: Make Do and Mend

Book: Make Do and Mend

Author: Jill Norman (Foreword)

This book is a collection of reprinted pamphlets from WW2 Britain as part of the "Make Do and Mend" campaign. During a time when many things were rationed, families had to get creative. This collection provides many tips on how to repair clothing, save energy and cook most efficiently.

It suffices to say I love this book. It makes excellent historical reading as well as providing practical tips that can still be used today. The pamphlets are reproduced in colour but I find some of the words do get lost in the spine of the book (due to the change of format).

So far the only project I have attempted is making my own slippers. They aren't quite done yet but so far they look slightly better then expected (although I did cheat and use a glue gun a few times).

The only thing I don't like about this book is Mrs Sew and Sew, but that is just because I find her extremely creepy...

Although I do like cartoon Mrs Sew and Sew a little better.
(Click below for video)

I DIDN"T FAIL!!!

WHOOT! I actually passed all my courses!!!!! I honestly thought I may have failed some of my courses but I managed to get 70's and 80's in all my classes!!!! I am kind of in shock but very very happy :D Very, very, very, VERY happy :D

Math is hard.

So in honour of the fact school is over for another term and I survived, here are some school inspired vintage finds from Etsy (click on picture for link to item):

Vintage Brass School Bell $12

MidCentury Vintage Metal Desk Top Vintage Tap Stapler $12.50

Swift Handy Calculator $22

Old School Midget Pencil Sharpener - Surface Mounted with Hand Crank $7.99

Vintage 1940's Box of Chalk $4.50

That's All :)

Unpacking and Property Searching

Still super busy at the moment unpacking/reorganizing but I thought I would take a quick break and write a little blog post. I apologize to anyone whose blog I follow, as I have been completely unable to keep up with reading everyone’s new posts these past few weeks. Hopefully I will get a co-op job soon and be able to fall into some sort of routine. Until then, it is basically days filled with unpacking and property hunting with le parents.

I have completely fallen in love with the 9acre farm that needs a huuuuuuuge amount of work but my parents aren't sure if they really want to take out a mortgage on a second property now that they are retired. Which makes me very very sad since this place in my dream property (complete with old barn and century red brick farm house in need of repair). I will keep trying to convince them though :)


Pictures of my rooms (plus some neat storage ideas I have come up with) will be posted hopefully sometime this week or next, but it may take me a little longer to get used to being back home again.

And now for the Annette Hanshaw song I can't get out of my head:




That's All.

Just a quick update

I know, it's been quite a while since I last posted. This is due to a combination of studying for exams, moving back home for the summer, and coming down with a cold at the most inconvenient time. But exams are over (yay!) so now I am just left with the task of unpacking.

Unpacking sounds much simpler than it is. Or maybe I am just making it more difficult. I seem to have turned unpacking some boxes into rearranging furniture, buying new things and re-organizing everything I own. There will be pictures when I am finished (well, if it turns out alright then there will be. I have too much furniture at the moment and no where to put anything...).

I did buy some new magazines during my last trip to the antiques market before I moved. I will scan them, once I get my scanner set up (which will happen after I actually find my scanner....).

But for now, here are a few pictures I took a long time ago, simply because I can't have a blog post without pictures!

These two pictures (above and below) are of this abandoned farm house near my cottage. I would love to go back there and get more pictures (since the sun was rapidly setting as I tried to get a few snaps last time).

That's right. The last one is a badly photoshopped picture of me hanging out with Sherlock Holmes and Watson. What can I say, I love Sherlock Holmes....

Patterns and Pincurls

So ready to see the final results of my pincurl efforts with my new haircut?

Yes, I know. I look a bit like a poodle. So it didn't turn out nearly as well as hoped. Actually I had worried it might not hold the curl well enough. Turns out it holds it quite well. Too well. I was actually forced to go out with my hair like this since I had an exam review period and no time to de-poof.

On the plus side, it did allow me to test the new recipe I found for hair setting lotion. Link here. It is made from flax seeds that are basically boiled in water. It was a lot thicker than I expected but it really works. My hair held most of that poof all day. Which may or may not be a good thing.... But it didn't make my hair greasy or crunchy like normal hair products.

In other news, I went to the antiques market after my exam. I know I was just there but I figured it was one of my last chances before I move. I ended up scoring some lovely patterns. They cost only about $3.50 each, which is amazing considering last time I was in Fabricland they had new patterns "on sale" for $15 each!!!

The first one I think is from the late 1950's. The other two I know are from the mid-1960's.

I am quite looking forward to being reunited with my sewing machine. When I get home I am going to hit the fabric store and get some nice new fabric to make something. I may start with the jacket since it looks quite easy and I haven't sewn with a pattern in a while. Normally I just wing it and hope for the best.

I also saw the cutest sewing box at the antique market. I didn't buy it since it was a little pricey and I couldn't figure out how to get it back on the bus with me. I am hoping it is still there when my parents pick me up in a week and a half. I will be heartbroken if it isn't. I couldn't find an exact picture but it looks like a slightly more 1950's version of this:

Results of the haircut

I took before pictures as proof that my hair actually is a lot shorter. It is still long but I cut at least 4 inches off the bottom and added some layering. I like it and am excited to see if it pin-curls any better. My hair actually has a lot more volume now without that excess weight. And it likes to fall slightly over one eye, so perfect for the Veronica Lake look I was trying to go for. Overall, not bad for 10 minutes in the bathroom with a pair of scissors.

It is a little hard to see the haircut in the pictures below due to the fact there isn't enough light in the apartment to use my web-cam for photos but I couldn't get all my hair in the picture with my SLR.

Before: Freakishly long, gross and only wearable if pinned up.

After: Still long but not freakishly so, with more layers.

My weekend craft project was this lovely ribbon holder. It was my BFF's idea (link to her blog --->) and is basically just a piece of ribbon strung though the middle of the ribbon spools and then tied to my desk shelf. It works quite well and is expandable as I get more ribbon.

That was basically all I did this weekend other than study for my Applied Math: Differential Equations course exam.

Anyone else listen to Max Raabe? I just discovered him a couple days ago but I love his rather tongue and cheek take on modern songs. His voice reminds me slightly of Rudy Vallee. Here are two of my favourite covers he's done: (first one because I like how it sounds, second one just because it makes me giggle)