MIA for a week or two....

This is just a quick post to let you all know I will be MIA for the next week or two. I am up to my cottage for a week for a much needed holiday. After that I have to pack and get ready to move back to Waterloo for another term so I may not have much time for blogging.

I will try and catch up with my blog reading when I get back. I somehow doubt I will be able to entirely catch up (I follow waaaayyy too many blogs. I am averaging about 45minutes a day just to keep up, but at least it is an enjoyable 45 minutes...), so sorry if I am a little sparse on my comments.

Mad Hatter Tea Party

On Monday night I hosted a Mad Hatter Tea Party. It was a lot of fun and thank you to everyone who came. Here are some lovely photos from the night as well as the party plan :)

Theme: Alice in Wonderland (the book, not the movie)

Location: My upper deck (think almost tree fort since it is amoungst tree branches)

Food: Chocolate Peanutbutter Squares, Chocolate Eclair Squares, Buttertarts, Pavlova and Yogurt Chantilly, Raspberries, and Cherries (with chocolate chips)

Tea: Raspberry Chocolate tea, Red Vanilla tea, Orange Manderin Spice tea

Main Decorations: Card Chandileer (I made it and it took forever to sew all the cards together!), Eat Me and Drink Me cards on the food, Various Tea Pots, Cardboard Pink Flamingos, The Cheshire Cat (it was a cardboard smile hanging in the corner, see picture below), Flowers (I had roses on the table and then some other flowers around the edges), Christmas lights

Music: 1930's Swing cd. Later on I wanted to play a Bing Crosby cd and everyone else wanted Lady Gaga.... I won.

And here are some of the many pictures (it looked even cooler when it got dark and the glass droplets on the table, and the mirrors on the chandileer, were sparkling):

Cheshire Cat

And here are some pictures of my outfit. The hat was just a plain white beach hat but I added a feather boa, some pink faux flowers and a sparkley butterfly to make it more fun.

I made everyone wear a hat :)

Best hat of the evening:

A little bit of everything.

This post doesn't have much of a theme but here it goes:

I was looking at my postcard collection yesterday and realized I forgot to scan the two latest additions to my collection. So here they are. Normally I go for the ones with the best messages written on the back, but these two were mainly chosen for their pretty pictures.

I also forgot to scan my two "newest" magazines. The covers weren't overly attractive so here are a few of my favourite pictures of Hollywood stars from the November 1934 issue of New Movie.

Mary Pickford

Myrna Loy

And this has to be my all time favourite picture of Ginger Rogers!

I am so excited to have some 1930's magazines now. The early 1930's is by far my favourite time period but I was having a difficult time finding magazines from then (that I could afford anyways). Then on my last trip to the antique market I found three (!) lovely magazines. The third one is going to be a Christmas present, but I will be shortly posting some lovely scans from the two I already have :)

And finally, here is the end result of my latest sewing project. It was made using a 1960's pattern but I had to alter the sleeves and add a belt. I have come to the conclusion that 1960's styles just don't suit me. I look better in clothes that are more fitted and structured. Nevertheless I love this dress, if only from the fact it is made using Ikea fabric! Ikea has some really great (and cheap) fabrics right now! Well I find it exciting...

That's All.

Top Ten under 100

I must admit, I am a bit of a blog addict. I follow a lot of blogs (perhaps a few too many...) and I find them a source of daily inspiration. It always makes me sad when someone has a great blog but only few readers, so I decided to share ten of my favourite blogs at the moment with less than 100 followers (I also only chose blogs that have been updated within the last month). There are lots of other great blogs in addition to the ones listed here, so go check out my blog list --->

I thought maybe I should make this into one of those "blogger awards" so here is an icon you can post on the side of your blog if you so desire :)

Please share the love and nominate your favourite blogs (with under 100 followers) for a Hidden Gem Award.

And now in no particular order:

http://butterfliesanddaisysvintage.blogspot.com/

http://adayinthelifeofbetsy.blogspot.com/

http://fortieskate.blogspot.com/

http://mylifeisvintage.blogspot.com/

http://www.modernvintagegirl.com/

http://mysticdomestica.blogspot.com/

http://rubyrouletteunravels.blogspot.com/

http://tealoveanarchy.blogspot.com/

http://thepincurldiaries.blogspot.com/

http://vintagelesbianproject.blogspot.com/

DIY Natural Hair Pomade (or Hand-Salve, you pick)

I have been dying to get some hair pomade for a while now but all the major brands contain waaaayy too many crazy sounding chemicals for me. So I decided to try to make my own. Several failed attempts later here is what I have found works best:

1) Gather your supplies. You will need some beeswax, some oil (I used a combination of Jojoba oil and Olive oil) and microwavable glass bowl.

2) Melt beeswax in microwave. Heat it for 30 seconds, stir then repeat until melted. You can also use a double boiler but the wax really sticks to metal, and using a glass bowl over a pot takes a long time to melt the wax.

3) Add oil, and quickly stir until it is thoroughly mixed. I used an almost equal amount of oil and wax, with slightly more oil. If you want a thinner consistency, add more oil. (Mine turned out thicker than normal pomade but it still works well).

4) Pour into a jar or container and let cool. When cooled it will have somewhat solidified.

To Use: Warm a bit in your hands then apply as you would a normal pomade.

I actually found this recipe also works fabulously as a hand-salve. After applying to my hair, I rub a bit into my cuticles and any dry patches on my hands (or feet). It has a lovely honey scent, but if you wanted to get creative you could add some essential oils and create your own scent.

Work Wear and Old Cars

Wearing vintage to work is not always possible. I work in a museum so vintage clothing is much more accepted, but I don't always have time in the morning to go fully vintage.

Most days I opt for a semi-vintage style consisting of trousers and a top (normally a sweater since the air conditioning in the museum is a little on the frigid side). This is normally paired with a vintage brooch, a silk scarf, or a fancy little hat. I curled my hair in rollers, since pin-curls take forever to dry in my hair and wouldn't have been ready by morning.

And Voila! Here is the final result:


And while I was working, my parents were off having a lovely time looking at old cars at this years annual Concours d'Elegance in Port Hope. Here are some of the cars they got to see:

Oh, and I realized why my skin reacted so badly to the oil cleansing. I'm allergic to tea tree oil. Which might be the reason why my whole face broke out after slathering a mixture of it and Jojoba oil all over my face. I had completely forgotten that I am mildly allergic to the oil since I haven't used it for years. I may try the oil cleansing again (with Castor oil this time) but I am going to wait until my skin calms down a bit first.

I will leave you with the lovely Rita (and the song I can't seem to get out of my head...)

Yay or Nay?

I bought this purple sweater a while ago on sale. I wasn't in love with it but it was a really good sale and I couldn't say no. I really regretted buying it after since it is very inferior in quality compared to the vintage clothing I normally buy.

I decided to try altering it by adding a lace collar. Now I am not sure if I like it or if it just looks dumb. What do you guys think? Yay or Nay?

(Sorry for the terrible web-cam pictures. I really need to find my tripod for my camera.... and buy a new camera that actually auto focuses....).

Oil Cleansing?

I ran out of cleanser last week so I decided to experiment with something I have thought about trying for a while: the oil cleansing method. The basic method involves applying an oil to your skin then removing it with a toner (such as witch hazel). It is basically the same thing as the cold cream method only using an oil.

It relies on the principle that oil dissolves oil. You apply oil to your face in order to remove more oil and dirt. I have heard of just using water and a washcloth to remove the oil afterwards but that didn't seem to get it all off so I opted for a witch hazel toner.

For oil I tried Jojoba oil (which is actually a liquid wax produced from a seed) mixed with tea tree oil. At the beginning of the week I was using a lavender witch hazel without alcohol, which didn't seem effective enough at removing the oil, so I switched to a basic witch hazel toner that did contain alcohol (both by Thayers).

I was hoping that it would live up to its claims but by the end of the week my skin was breaking out a lot more than normal. Has anyone else tried this method? I was really disappointed that it didn't work.

I guess I am back to searching for an all natural facial cleanser. What do you ladies use on your skin? I am always curious about what other people use since my skin has always been "problem skin". (Both my parents had terrible acne and my grandmas was so severe her parents took her to get experimental medical procedures to try and help it, so I think genetics might have something to do with it....)