This show is totally fun to watch; I really enjoyed it! While I am pining for the last episode to be available online, I couldn’t resist sharing the first three ~ ta da! And now episode 4 is up too! Yay!
Anyone else inspired to sit down and do a spot of sewing?
xox,
bonita
Has anyone watched the BBC program “Call the Midwife”? I saw the first six episodes on DVD the other day and loved it. I won’t give out any spoilers, but I must say that the clothing is gorgeous ~ showing a blend in fashions as style crosses over from 1940s to the 1950s “New Look” {I believe the series is set in the early 50s}, and the story telling of life in those days really is lovely.
There’s tragedy and drama, to be sure, but also a very strong theme of love, life, and duty which I find very uplifting. I do so hate it when you watch period t.v. or movies that only focus on the grotty “shock” factors of those times ~ like extra marital affairs, babies out of wedlock, and the like. I find it kind of annoying personally, because I tend to watch those shows or movies precisely for their “old fashioned” values!
Yes, there were such goings on back in those times, I don’t deny that, but I also think that values back then were hugely different from today, and that’s one thing that I find very strongly influencing and shaping my appreciation of the past.
My love of vintage fashion is most definitely tied to my love of the values and ideals found back then. No, they weren’t all perfect, I am the first to admit that ~ there were many attitudes that were wrong, even as there were many that were right. I do feel however, that the attitudes of selfless duty and love that many people had, and thusly acted on ~ just because it was the right thing to do ~ were good ones. Ones that have really been lost today, much to society’s detriment.
We are so caught up in seeking out our own pleasures that the thought of doing something for others, or even our community and country, at great cost to ourselves is often a foreign one, and at times I feel that it is sorely missed. I’m not saying that those attitudes and actions would solve all our problems, but I do feel that in many cases it could help, if not prevent, the problems from occurring.
That being said, I do enjoy and appreciate the freedoms of the century I live in, and I am glad for the ability to choose which parts of the past I want to admire and emulate, even as I can choose which parts of the present I can admire and emulate. There is much to be said for the freedom of personal choice, though as they say, with great power comes great responsibility. (◕‿◕｡)
I should probably finish off now, before this turns into a massive dissertation {kudos for getting this far!}, but I am curious ~ what do you think? Are the values of the 1950s, and further back, as worth while keeping as the clothing is? Do those values affect you at all, or are they irrelevant? I know a lot of vintage life stylists do get into the whole “Make Do and Mend” way of thinking, but as vintage enthusiasts, how much is too much in allowing the past to influence your ideology and attitudes?
xox,
bonita
~ * ♥ * ~ * ♥ * ~ * ♥ * ~
Dear Daisy Blue Dress ~ Made by Me, 2012 Pastel Yarn Comb ~ Made by Me, tutorial here Gladys Owl Broach ~ Acorn and Will Jade Bracelets ~ Hong Kong ‘08 & Thrifted Polka Bow Wedges ~ Big W, ‘11
 |
| Ta Da! |
“Elegance to me is, at its core, about warmth and consideration for the feelings of others. A truly elegant woman never fails to lift the spirits of other people, never fails to blow a guest away with her hospitality, and never misses a chance to brighten up someone’s day with her smile.” ~ Nina Pundarik-Dossin of The Proper Lady in an interview with The Glamorous Housewife.
When I read this interview with Nina on The Glamorous Housewife, I thought that it was a perfect summary of how I think a lady should act. And then I thought, “But there’s a little something missing.” I wanted to add that, for me, I think that a lady is also temperate, gentle and kind in spirit, always considerate of those around her. This way, not only does she brighten up the room with her smile and inner beauty, but with her consideration of other's needs. This is central to her charm.
To me, Grace Kelly was charm personified. While I don’t know much about Mrs. Kelly’s personal life and actions, I do know that while she not only appeared to be the epitome of classical beauty and timeless elegance, she also was said to be charming, kind and and just as lovely in person as she is in her pictures. A real princess in every sense of the word.
I don't consider myself to be a 'real' lady yet, but I thought I would share with you all the hope that I have ~ that one day I will somehow become a lady. While others may or may not agree on the importance of this personal choice, I think it is something that every woman should consider. What does a lady look like to you? What kind of woman or lady are you aspiring to become?
As women, we have much power to influence the lives of those close to us. Don’t under estimate the extent of your power. You may not ever become a household name like Grace Kelly, but you might just become the living example that helps to show others what a lady truly looks like.
It was said of Grace that she brought “a soft warm light” into other people’s lives. What a wonderful legacy to leave behind ~
So what is your legacy going to be?
xox,
bonita
* Or Curing my Grandmother Scuffs addiction.
Case evidence as seen here:
See for yourselves ladies and gentlemen. The suspect in question has upgraded her “house clothes” to the stage of casual and comfortable, yet neat and presentable, from pyjamas, trackie dacks{or track pants for non-Aussies.} and t~shirts. However, it would appear that she forgot one important detail… THE FOOTWEAR.
Okay, I admit it. I am addicted to my slippers. Yes, they look like my grandmother’s scuffs, but let’s face it, they are easy and cosy and, well, easy! The thing is, if I am bothering to dress nicely, then I think that I should bother to put on some proper shoes. I just don’t seem to have an appropriate pair to pick from. *gaspshockhorror*. I think I need to find something, but I am not sure what.
They have to be really easy to slip in and out of {no hands for when I am carrying the baby} and comfortable to wear all day. I do know that probably means a pair of flats, but I was also thinking that may be I could just buy a nicer pair of slippers that sort of look like shoes and go for them instead? Here are a few styles I am considering.
~ * ♥ * ~ These you can purchase, and I must say I am really loving the cable knit and the pom~pom, although white IS a little impractical. ~ * ♥ * ~
~ * ♥ * ~ These ones you can make yourself; which is pretty nifty. Maybe I should have a go at making my own.. ~ * ♥ * ~
Which ones do you think I should go for? Would you wear them out of the house or just at home?
xox,
bonita
Hi everyone! This is a tutorial on how to make a Pom-pom Dandelion Floral Arrangement with some dead branches and wool. I needed a nice something to sit on top of the cupboard in my entranceway because it looks so bare and stark otherwise. I saw the idea on Pinterest, and thought it would look so cute as part of a bigger arrangement{involving books and coffee filters!}. It’s a very simple, but effective look, so let’s get to it. : D
Materials you will need:
Step 1: Start making your pom-poms ~ you can use any method you want. In this tutorial I will show you the fork method. You wrap the yarn horizontally around the fork prongs, leaving space at the bottom and the top.
Step 2: When the yarn is about half a centimetre thick around the fork, cut the strand, leaving a tail about as long as the fork’s handle. Using that tail, wrap the yarn several times vertically around the horizontal band, poking the yarn through the middle space between the fork prongs at the bottom of the band.
Step 3: Pull the half-finished pom-pom off the fork and cut through the sides of the horizontal band of yarn. The strands will spring out and you can now trim the pom-pom into a smooth ball shape. Don’t trim too much wool, or it’ll get too small. It doesn’t have to be perfectly round, but smoothness is good.
Step 4: Lather, rinse, repeat steps 1 to 3 until you have enough pom-poms. This can simply be decided by taste. You may want to stick a pom-pom on the end of each branch/twig, or you may want to leave a few ends free. I went with the latter option, and left a few branches bare.
Step 5: Put a dab of glue on the end of your branch and stick a pom-pom on. Do this until you are happy with your branches. Now you are done! Ta-da! > ω <
xox,
bonita
I’ve been busy on Pinterest, pining away at ideas to help me keep my house tidy and organized; just the way I like it. I have been falling down on the job this week I am afraid; it seems that when I go out, like to get my hair cut, or for Theodore’s immunisations, it takes all day and by the time I get back home I am too exhausted to start the housework! : /
But I suppose it cannot be helped, I just have to try and catch up or ignore it and live with it until next week. Which method to you prefer? I once read a book on organization that said that you should leave the weekly jobs if you don’t get them done on the day they are scheduled for or you will forever be playing catch up. I suppose that is good advice if you really don’t have time to spare, but I find that if I just stop mucking around on the computer for a while I can often catch up on yesterday’s chores if I didn’t manage to get them done the day before.
If you are interested in the weekly chore system I use, here are two chore charts that are currently hanging on my wall ~
They are both available for download here if you would like to use them yourselves. Obviously there are personal things that you may want to change around, but I often find it helps to have some sort of starting point!
Wash on Monday,
Iron on Tuesday,
Mend on Wednesday,
Churn on Thursday,
Clean on Friday,
Bake on Saturday,
Rest on Sunday.
And as for leaving the washing until later on in the week? Well ~
They that wash on Monday
Have all week to dry;
They that wash on Tuesday
Are not much awry;
They that wash on Wednesday
Are not so much to blame;
They that wash on Thursday
Wash for shame;
They that wash on Friday
Wash in need;
And they that wash
on Saturday?
Dirty they are indeed!
Lol; so what does that mean that sometimes I wash on Sunday? I don’t even want to think about it!
> o <
Anyway, on a more serious note I find this statement to be very wise and true for my personal experiences regarding housekeeping:
So don’t think that you have to eke out your hours and organize your time by the second to get your house work done; I have found that with a simple routine it really is quite easy to accomplish a lot of work. Now if only I could manage to apply those principles to my coaching studies and my sewing! Oh well. One step at a time I guess!
xox,
bonita
Let’s be clear here, I am not a trendy, hipster hippie. I can’t claim to that my household practices are entirely green, eco~conscious and save~the~whale friendly, but I am aiming to slowly reduce the amount of chemicals I use in cleaning and maintaining the house. I mostly want to do this because not only is it better for the environment, but also because I feel it’s healthier for my family and I.
I have no idea how many chemicals are absorbed through my skin every day, what with all the hair products, cleansers, perfume, deodorant, moisturizers, and that’s not even including the days I wear makeup! However, it’s not only health factor that I am considering; let’s also remember that eco~friendly cleaners have been around for a lot longer than today’s trend. I personally believe it’s a major element of the “Make do and Mend” mentality, just upcycled under a different slogan of “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”.
I don’t know about you, but for me, wearing vintage is more than just clothes, it’s also part of a deliberate effort on my side to get back to basics. You could argue that stockings, garters, gloves, hats and all those necessary accessories for a authentic 1940s or 50s look is far from basic but that’s another post entirely!
Anyway, the whole ‘getting back to basics’ motto I am running with means that I am going to get all eco~vintage on my cleaning routine. Here are some awesome recipes from Pinterest that I plan on using, and I thought maybe you might find them useful as well.
DIY Dishwashing Liquid & Bath Fizzer
xox,
bonita
I have a few websites & iPhone apps that I wanted to share & review with you today. I having been loving these ever since I found them and I think that they are just too good to keep to myself, so here you are!
Okay, so a lot of bloggers already know about this free app for the iPhone, but I want to share it anyway just in case.
Instagram is a great app for anyone who loves to capture an instant photo, and with the added advantage of a polaroid type picture, it produces some pretty cool snaps. It’s simple and easy to use, so this app is superb for everybody!
The thing that I personally like the most about Instagram is that it forces you to work with limited lens and capture technology. It’s a challenge to get a good picture, but once you do, you can make it look pretty spiffy with the tilt shift function and the awesome range of filters. I like that I can grab a shot when I see it, and still have to rise to the challenge to put the shot together in a way that looks good. I think that this is great app for furthering my photography skills and technique so that’s why I am loving it!*
Verdict:
4.5 /5 ~ could be faster to load up into the camera view, other than that, fantastic.
And if you are taking all these gorgeous photos how are you going to share them? Why, with the Extragram website of course! You can share your photos and follow other people, and much like Twitter, receive the feed of the people you are following on you iPhone. Sweetness! There are some great pictures out there and it is really inspiring to see what you can do with a simple phone camera.
Okay, now I heading off in another direction and into another hobby of mine; knitting and crochet. If you are a knitter or crocheter { or both; like me! } and you’ve looked up patterns on the internet, Ravelry might be old news to you. However, I only just discovered it recently and I am impressed!
It provides a nifty way of not only finding patterns, but also storing them, keeping track of your UFOs { Un~Finished Objects! }, your yarn stash, and, of course, the successful projects that you have finished and want to gloat over. I like that I can put up photographs of my projects and keep them all organized ~ so again, loving this site.
Speaking of organization, I have to mention 2Do. It’s an iPhone app, so it’s limited in availability, and you also have to pay a $7.49AUD fee for it{ it’s gone up since I bought it{ !! }but if you consider how much you pay for an organizer, it’s still worth it and you never have to throw it out or buy new pages }. If you are wanting something to help you stay on top of things however, and you happen to have an iPhone, I can really recommend this app.
Usually { as you probably know } I am a traditionalist. Give me good old paper over tech any time! But the thing is, I can only fit so much in my tiny vintage handbags and using this app helps me to loose an address book, a to-do list, shopping lists, a social calendar, a blogging calendar, an art & craft ideas notebook, etc ~ basically the brick of paper that is a Filofax/organizer!
I like that I can bundle most of my life into my phone and I am good to go! Okay, so I still keep a separate journal, but between 2Do and Instagram I am pretty much set. I have slimmed down the contents of my purse, and as a bonus, feel a lot less “scattered” with all my bits and bobs in one place. Yay! > ω < ~ ♥
Verdict:
5/5 ~ You know what? No complaints from me. I was trying to think of a downer, but there just isn’t one. All in all it’s a really great app!
What apps/websites do you use to help keep you organized? Are there any that you just love?
xox,
bonita
*All the pictures were taken with Instagram. Theodore makes the best subject! ^ U ^ ~ ♥ ♥ ♥
I found this post on Miss May’s blog Walking in May and thought that it was very interesting. I am all for trying to detox and be as healthy as I possibly can {That being said I am still addicted to my french fries and cannot resist them no matter how hard I try!}, so learning about a natural detox process was something I found helpful.
Mind you, I do not know how accurate the information is, but I certainly don’t think that there is any harm in trying this little system.
Now I am no expert on the matter but I can share what has worked for me and what I have learned....so here goes!
Ever wondered why you have reoccurring dark eye circles or puffiness? Or ever felt really heated around the throat area, as though you can feel a gush of hot air rising and have bad breath too? This could be caused by your natural detox system being interrupted…
xox,
bonita
Do I say vintage? But it’s not solely vintage, like Solanah from Vixen Vintage, or Fleur from Diary of a Vintage Girl… Sometimes it’s more of a china doll come princess trend ~ sort of like Violet’s Hime Gyaru look from Tales of an Ingénue, but again, not really!
I find it hard to describe exactly what my style is, but I do know what types of clothes and trends fit into my wardrobe. This in itself is not always an easy thing to determine so I thought I jot down a few simple guidelines that might help you determine what your style is and what clothes fit into that.
~ * ~ What pieces of clothing do you get complimented on?
Is it that fab leopard print jacket that you bought on a whim? Your 1950s tea length party dress? Or perhaps your understated, yet versatile black skinny jeans. Either way, pieces of clothing that compliment your style, taste and figure will be noticed. For instance, I was complimented on a pair of jeans I own by a random stranger in my computer lab. I always thought that they suited me, but ever since then I know I will never throw that pair of jeans out!
~ * ~ What fashion pictures do you keep?
I do not know about you, but I have a folder marked “Fashion Inspiration” sitting in my hard drive and that thing is chokers with photos! From the pictures I’ve collected I have been able to establish that the 1940s is my favourite vintage era, and that if it is feminine, frilly and pretty I will pretty much always like it.
~ * ~ What type of fashion bloggers do you NEVER skip in your feed reader?
There are some fashion blogs that I follow that I only bother to look at when I have the time. But if my feed reader is alarmingly full {how DO I get over 200+ posts to look at??} I will skip a lot of them and mark them as read. The one that I always read however, are the bloggers that resonate with me, but also have a style that is either similar to mine, or one that I want to emulate. If I see a piece of clothing similar to what I loved when I saw it on their blogs, it has to be mine. I have never had an “Oops, why did I buy that again” moment from doing that. At the moment I am collecting white, ruffly, girly, sweet blouses and loving them.
~ * ~ What type of outfits do you love on the street?
I love people watching and again, it is the same as before ~ if you see something you love on someone else, chances are that if you find something similar in ready to wear, or out thrifting, you will never regret it if you take it home with you!
~ * ~ What kind of item is an instant purchase?
This is a big one. Occasionally you will find a piece of clothing that just screams at you “Take me home!” but that only happens once in a while and more often it is harder to find anything that appeals to you when you go shopping. But what you can do to combat the “Oh golly, I cannot find anything at all” shopping blues is to take notes on the elements of your Must Have pieces.
So after all that ~ the big question…
What is my style? Well, I define my style as romantic & vintage. Classic, girly, sweet and feminine. How about you ~
What is your style?
I hope these guidelines may have helped you to have a closer idea of what your style might be and how best to look out for pieces that suit your taste. ^ U ^
xox,
bonita
P.S. ~ I do not know where the picture of the girl with the bicycle is from; if anyone knows who I should credit please tell me and I can update the post with the correct link. Thank you!
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