well, I used to be a lady..

contrasting outfit posts

2011-12-01T20:42:00.003+13:00

I am planning to do a whole lot of outfit posts over my christmas break, so thought I would get a bit of practise in.

I need to work on my background I know.

Firstly my outfit for social swing dancing last week.

I found these awesome culottes from Glassons (cheap chain store) on sale, they are perfect high waisted 40 style pants, teamed with an original 1940's cotton top and cheap sand shoes.

To contrast here is my beautiful original lace dress. The Dreamstress tells me it was from spring 1933. It is so fragile that i cant wear it often, but this was a special occasion.

The video release party for Porcelain Toy's "Monsters".

The theme was 20's/30's black and white gothic glamour.

Perfect.

Hair Prep for a vintage weekend

2011-11-20T19:48:00.004+13:00

For the past two weekends I have had a stall at vintage fairs. Retro Vixens in Auckland and Atomic Market in Hamilton.

This has meant a resurgence in my hair curling.

I bought "Westmore beauty Book, a 1950's guide.." from bramcost productions a few months ago and have adopted the setting pattern for oblong faces.

The book is great, very detailed, and gives you the setting pattern for every shape face.

Luckily my shape face lends itself to the setting pattern for PERFECT Rita Hayworth hair. Woohoo!

This is the setting pattern from a couple of angles...

After a good 3/4 hour brushing out ( no Im not kidding) and liberal pomade application, the effect is fab. I have found that it lasts me for 4 days. I can almost convince people that my hair is naturally curly.

Here is the finished result - all dolled up for Retro Vixens.

Road Trip Bargains

2011-10-28T21:16:00.004+13:00

Im sorry..

It was just too difficult.

I was in a strange town with unexplored Op Shops. Lots of them, ones that were advertised as amazing.

I hadnt been to any for ages, I was in withdrawal.

Plus I had a 9 month old baby, it was raining, he needed warm shelter and toys to play with.

He practically begged me to visit them and buy him fun, preloved things, let him crawl around the floor and encourage sweet little old ladies to fuss and fawn over him.

See look.. how could i possibly say no to this little face?

So I nabbed me a flour sifter, a load of olive buttons and a portable Stratton ash tray. Oh and a little plastic book for Riley.
All for $8.10

How the All Blacks are making us poor

2011-10-27T20:38:00.003+13:00

Last night after a recount I found I actually had $24.50.
Which is just as well as i had an emergency that we all know well - the missing vital ingredient to a recipe.
Its always these little things that trip us up.
Now did you know that all peppers are not created equal?
I saved a whole 40c by weighing the peppers and choosing the lightest. I cant believe i have never thought of that before.

Today.. Forgoing my usual $5.50 I spend on lunch I took my frozen bread roll and soup to work, and snaffled a couple of chocolate biscuits going free on the table.
The big lesson I learnt today, thanks to a teenager that the two All Blacks flags fluttering on my car increase my fuel consumption by 12%. I wondered why I was using so much.
Im all for National pride but not when it is affecting my paltry bank balance.
So they had to go. Sorry Ritchie.

Then, good news.. my son couldnt see his maths tutor so i got to keep the $20 I had budgeted for him. That means i now have $40 disposable income.
I celebrated by blowing $7 on takeaways. Thursdays are takeaway nights, so i augmented the chips with an egg from my lovely backyard hens - if this week gets really bad i can just live on eggs.

I am a bit worried about tommorrow. I go on a road trip to Wanganui.
Me and road trips mean only one thing.... Op shops. my road mate has already asked me to scope them out. I know Im not going to be able to say no. Is there a twelve steps for Op shops?

I cant promise that Im going to stay strong, is borrowing money cheating?

The Penny Pinching Project

2011-10-26T14:19:00.003+13:00

I am a big project girl.

In fact if you ever want to get me to do something, call it a "project" and Im in.

So this week I am faced with the task of making $20 last an entire week.

This is due to the misguided purchase of concert tickets, so dont feel too sorry for me.

I am a credit card lover and as that is no longer an option am training mysefl out of the " I want it and will buy it right now" mentality.
So a project it is..

I will approach it as a nod to the depression era, war rations and all round make do and mend vintage ethos.
And of course blog daily about my efforts, struggles and creative approach.

I have a 15 1/2 year old who inhales cereal and milk at least twice a day and I forsee this as my biggest challenge.. that and the incessant requests for money for all kinds of teenage necsessities.
I have food in the cupboards and petrol in my car, a cell phone and sky TV so its not like Im really doing it hard.
So lets see.

Is living on the equivalent of a teenagers pocket money really acheivable?

Very Odd Photos..

2011-10-10T18:48:00.003+13:00

I was cleaning out my vintage postcard collection and look what i found...

These extremely odd photos.

I was very pleased because I have wanted to contribute to the "Fedora Lounge's" 50 unexplainable photos thread. If you havent seen it yet please go to http://www.thefedoralounge.com/ and check it out.

So what are they all about?

Any ideas?

Any witty captions spring to mind?

Baking, Dancing and Having Fun

2011-10-03T11:16:00.006+13:00

It was my friend and soon to be business partner Mandi Lynn's big weekend.
Mandi is A La Mode and has just moved in to a beautiful studio in Petone.

So it was decided a big party was needed and it must be girly, pretty and oh so vintage.

So after some frantic baking..

and general prettifying the fun began.
Full Swing started off the celebrations with some lindy hop

Miss La Belle held a glove peeling workshop ( very popular I might add, even with the kids..)

and a wee PG rated performance.

and I held workshops on how to find and apply the perfect red lipstick.

Talk about fun, everyone looked so amazing and it was great to just how many people love the vintage asthetic in this little city.Thanks so much to everyone who came, here's to much more fun in the future.

Photo's by Mandi Lynn - lots more on www.lamode.co.nz

My Middy Haircut

2011-09-24T21:00:00.004+12:00

Its been a long long time!

I am embarrassed to say when the last haircut was - well that is the last "real" haircut... I have hacked away at it myself a few times, as my hairdresser found out yesterday. Consequently it was long, heavy and difficult to style.In order to be true to the vintage styling ethos I required a vintage haircut. Thanks to the wonderful world wide web this is very do-able.

Enter the Middy...

This haircut was devised in the 40's for Hollywood actresses. It is basically a blunt cut layered style, that has an exagerated U shape in the back.

The beauty of it is that you can choose whatever length you desire, its easy to adapt.

This is the second Middy I have had, I felt very confident this time as I know from experience that it is great if you regularly curl your hair. It makes the curls fall nicely and because its not too heavy they stay in well.

And it doesnt look too strange un-styled.

So off i went to my hairdresser - armed with the above diagram.

I went for a longer version of the "femme fatale" cut. Instead of 4 inches on the side and 6 inches at the back, I have 8 at the side and 10 at the back. The other layers were adapted to this length also.

This is the finished product un-styled. Sorry about the AWFUL photo, no makeup and bad light.

UUURRGGH.

And here it is curled and fancied up for the rugby world cup game between USA and Australia. Every kiwi was an American for the night.

So girls, if you are considering going for the Middy, I hope this is helpful. feel free to ask questions.

Makeup splurge...

2011-09-21T22:12:00.003+12:00

I was doing so well.
No Auctions for ages. Then i stumbled upon these little beauties.
I am figuring I can claim them as a business expense, i will use them in my presentation of vintage makeup. i love the 1950's mascara - in a little tube with a brush.
I also love the makeup/cigarette case - it fits my Besame lipstick perfectly!

And look at my fancy business card holder... much nicer than cigarettes.

The Madge Bellamy makeover

2011-09-19T11:50:00.006+12:00

I had the great good fortune this weekend to be involved in the production of a music video for the Wellington band "Porcelain Toy"and their new single; Monsters.

The video takes cuts from the 1932 movie "White Zombie" and superimposes the band members into it, to take the place of the lead actors.
White Zombie starred the darling of the 1920's, Madge Bellamy.

Madge was born Margaret Derden Philpott in 1899.

She starred in a number of movies including Lorna Doon, and was typecast as an innocent, however a strong will contrasted this screen image and led to disagreements over roles by the late 1920's. After the role of Madelaine in White Zombie she had some work however her career ended in 1943 with a bang... literally.

In San Francisco in 1943, Bellamy was accused of assault with a deadly weapon for shooting at her wealthy lover, Stanwood Murphy. The incident generated much publicity. The facts of the case remain somewhat cloudy. Shortly after the shooting, Bellamy was quoted as saying, "I only winged him, which is what I meant to do. Believe me, I'm a crack shot". Some show business references state outright that she shot him. But her defense attorney, the legendary Jake Ehrlich, contended the actress never hit Murphy despite firing several shots at him at close range, and Ehrlich described that as proof that Bellamy had merely intended to scare her lover. (source - Wikipedia).

Leimomi Oakes and I took the lovely Elizabeth De la Rey and turned her into Madge..

Leimomi made an amazing reproduction dress (she also got me the job.. will forever be indebted to you Leimomi) and after her hair was sprayed a zillion times and her makeup applied with a trowel the transformation was complete.
It wasnt difficult, Elizabeth is stunning, sweet, very funny and was a dream to makeup.
After 2 x 4.30 am starts ( the hair was more of a sculpture than a hairstyle) and shooting for 10 hours a day everyone got sillier and sillier - which made for great fun and great photos.

Just watch her with that gun...

Are you a lady??

2011-09-15T14:50:00.006+12:00

Calling all young ladies....

Mandi from
A La Mode
Photographic
Boutique,
Miss La Belle and myself
- The Vanity Case, are
launching the
"Frockabilly Finishing School".

Where young ladies will learn many skills that will ensure that they are never short of style, grace and poise - or a young man's phone number..

Of course I will be drawing upon the many lessons learnt in the last few years of vintage living and breathing, as will Mandi and Grace. Mandi has a brand new, breathtakingly cute studio in Petone, PERFECT for pin up shoots. She has a makeup bar and will sell Besame products.

To open the studio and celebrate the launch of Frockabilly, there will be a;

Full Swing - Wellington's Vintage Dance Company, will start off the proceedings with a bang, then after Mandi has cut the ribbon and celebrated the winning of her photographic awards there will be a glove peeling workshop by the amazing Burlesque Queen..Miss La Belle.

Various hilarity will ensue and I will present a workshop on Red Lipstick application....

So there is really no excuse not to come, there is something for everyone.
Now.. the exciting part...

We are looking for "The Face Of Frockabilly".
If you are a young lady, preferably in your teens we are looking for YOU. Its easy to enter - either rock up on the day, looking your glamorous best, or pop into the studio any time to have your photo taken.

If you are successful you will win a host of prizes - including a photo shoot from A la Mode and a hair and makeup makeover and free products from The Vanity Case. And of course you get to be the face of Frockabilly!

( beautiful photos in this post taken by Mandi BTW..)

Introducing..Chip and Dale

2011-09-12T14:17:00.003+12:00

I was walking past the Salvation Army shop and these two were looking out at me. They came home with me for the grand total of $1.

I collect these Japanese ceramic animals, especially the ones with the real animal fur, and these two little critters will look fab on my vintage bookcase with all the rabbits.

Pride of place is my ceramic pink piggy bank, one of the ones that you have to smash to get the money out. Its a wonder any of them survived at all!

RIP Nancy..

2011-08-08T11:43:00.002+12:00

New Zealand-born World War II heroine Nancy Wake has died in London, aged 98.

I wrote a post last year on the amazing Nancy here http://welliusedtobealady.blogspot.com/2009/12/allo-allo.html
She was the most decorated New Zealand service woman.
And man was she gorgeous!

Rest in Peace Nancy.
My mission - to find a biography about her.

Laziness be gone

2011-08-04T13:37:00.002+12:00

As you know this blog began with my quest to dress vintage 24/7.

Lately I have not lived up to this lofty ideal, unless I am swing dancing. I think swing dancing has filled that vintage yearning quite nicely.
However I am going to have to revisit at least part of my committment to the vintage look.

I have begun a business providing vintage hair and makeup parties and retailing the wonderful Besame cosmetics.
This means that I am going to be my own advertisement - I can no longer get away with straight hair and unruly eyebrows. If I'm holding myself up to be an "expert" in the vintage look, then I'm going to have to walk the walk.
Today it dawned on me...

I am going to have to get up an hour early again.
I am doing a party tonight so had to curl my hair. Getting up at my normal time meant I drove to work with hot rollers in my hair.
Which was fine but there was a nasty moment when I thought the car may overheat, and i got very strange looks at intersections.

So I will try my best, I will learn to love my pillow rollers. I will carry a lipbrush wherever I go, and I will never be seen in trackpants.

sigh...

Exciting news..

2011-07-18T15:24:00.004+12:00

Ok I know you all thought I had died, or been abducted by aliens or something...

That is if anyone at all still visits my blog at all!

Well, I have been a busy little bee.

And i have exciting news about a new direction my life is taking me.

I have started a business. Now this isnt just playing - like my vintage clothes business was.

I have dropped some serious time, energy and money into this baby, so it had better work out!

So... without further ado i present....

"The Vanity Case"

A company which specialises in "Vintage Glamour Parties".

This means that you book and host a party at your place, I rock over and do a vintage hair and makeup demonstration and present the Besame cosmetic range.

Made in the United States, Bésame products are handcrafted and all natural. They feature a unique 1940s inspired collection of metal compacts and lipsticks based on an interpretation of designs from the '30s and '40s. The collection includes, lipstick, powder, mascara and pencils. The petite, gold plated items replicate authentic pieces of the period.

I am also importing the lovely Lauren Rennells "vintage Hairstyling and Retro makeup" books, and a variety of products designed to make acheiving the vintage look possible.

EEEKK!! This is very exciting, and more than a little nerve racking. My aim is to start the business, see how it pans out for a year and if there is the chance of making enough money to survive - maybe cut down my full time job hours.

We will see.

Anyhow - check out my website, comments, suggestions etc are muchly appreciated!

Art Deco 2011

2011-03-23T15:39:00.002+13:00

Sorry for the shameful lack of posts, damn busy life!
Thought I would share a few pics from my recent trip to Napier for the annual Art Deco festival.
I went last year for the first time and have consequently been planning my wardrobe ever since.
Only managed 3 outfit changes... Shameful effort I know.

Outfit one... Bought 3 days before from trade me. An original vintage ensemble, so much so that I had to do urgent repairs so I didn't have a wardrobe malfunction.

Outfit two.... For the Gatsby picnic, found the cute parasol which matched my forties dress perfectly.

Didn't get a pic of the other outfit as I was busy dancing!

Speaking of dancing, that was the best part, the Full Swing crowd went up on masse and were by far the best dressed.
My aim for next year?
To pluck up courage to enter the fashion comp , and to be a better dancer so i dont stand on any of the poor boys toes.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Don Draper in my living room

2011-01-15T23:03:00.003+13:00

So Ive always wanted a vintage boyfriend to dress up.
But the universe decided I could do better than that, and gave me Seb instead.
Seb used to be a model, he is beyond gorgeous, and is one of my closest friends.
He sweetly tells me that because I look so nice in vintage, and I get so much attention, that he would like to give it a go.

So lucky me got to dress him up and play Mad Men for the night!
How cool is that!
Just like my own Ken doll.

Stripping....

2010-12-27T17:38:00.005+13:00

Lets see how many new visitors I get with that title!!

Mum and Dad live on the property of a man called Bob. Bob is not particularly sentimental and has a lot of stuff, some of which is stored in a shipping container by our house.
Dad set to clearing it all out today, and i of course, knowing how apt he is to throwing out treasures, jumped in too.

And spied this table and attached swinging stools.

I asked Bob very nicely if he would consider offloading it my way, and he not only said yes, but pointed me in the direction of these 3 chairs!

He believes they were his mother and fathers from the 1940's. They are Oak, with no makers mark that i can find. The veneer on the back is coming off so my plan is..
Strip the veneer off the backs and upholster them with some of my 1950's barkcloth, hopefully to tie in with the vinyl seat covers - which seen to be in good condition.
I needed an excuse to do a nightclass this year - and I think upholstery may be it!

Now the table and chairs.. I have to strip the layers of paint off the legs, then take off the rust to get to the chrome beneath, well thats what Google says anyways. ( update - its 3 hrs later and I have only done two legs, this is going to be a big project!!)
The top will need a bit of scrubbing and stain removal

and I will have to clean and refix the band around the table edge.

I thought i would reupholster the vinyl stool coverings, red with a cream trim to match the table top maybe.

What do you think? Any ideas?

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T18:25:00.003+13:00

I hope this blog finds everybody happy, full of food, maybe a little tipsy and with their loved ones.
I spend my christmases every year with my mum and dad and we do the same thing year in, year out. Its a lovely piece of stability in a crazy world.

We put a pillow case out for my son (14 is not too old to believe in santa) and lots of presents under the tree.
This fairy on the top of our tree is as old as I am, i must say - she is probably holding her age better than I am. Mind you she has had one makeover in her life - her dress was remade.

Here are a couple of my wonderful presents. The prize for creativity goes to Annah - her partner found the old tin and Annah made the shortbread.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night
xx

Vintage Design ideas?

2010-12-07T16:41:00.007+13:00

Hi all

I have had an idea to add to my blog's scope and I want to know if it is a good one or not..

I was at my very creative neighbours house the other day and she hauled out her living and design mags. They were chocka full of vintage design ideas and I was very inspired, especially as they had great photos.

So I thought I may share some of my vintage design ideas, things I have done in the way of decorating my living spaces and cool ways to use those treasures we find from time to time in thrift stores.

Whaddya reckon?

Its another aspect of my vintage dressing/fashion lifestyle and one that gives me immense satisfaction. I love hanging out in spaces that I have made pretty and interesting.

My first project...

I have an ugly space at the end of my bathtub that needed a little something, I have tried various things but it needed to fit with the vaguely art deco theme.

Then after perusing Emma's mags I realised I needed some kind of shelving to show off treasures.

Fast forward to today and I found this battered old slide box at my local auction for a fiver!

Turned on its side... Perfect little spaces for those bits and pieces lying round my house collecting dust.

One of the principals of design is grouping together objects that alone look like nothing, and put together have some meaning.

I have always loved the idea of little shelves, they look so inviting!

Now I just have to find some more little bits to fill it up.... its a hard life.

Op shop road trip and the world's scariest doll

2010-11-26T20:58:00.005+13:00

I thought I would do something in the way of public service today.
Us vintage Wellingtonians like to do op shop road trips, however it's hard to find out where they all are and what their opening times are.
So for the sake of all mankind I thought I would selflessly (ha ha yeah right, i wouldnt recommend visting them in the next few days as Ive cleaned them out!!) do a road trip and publish the addresses and times, I will put them all on op shop directory too.

So I covered the Manawatu pretty much, starting in Otaki and ending in Palmerston North.
I chose Woodville over Fielding, which on hindsight was a bad move, apart from the fact that if I hadnt gone to Woodville I wouldnt have found Chucky's Bride.
Is this not the scariest doll in the world?
Or this one maybe?
So here is the low down on the shops and their scores out of 10. I have only listed pure op shops, apart from two in Woodville as that is all that is there.

Otaki

Cobwebs
60 main st, Otaki township
Tues -fri 10-4
Sat 10-1
The most organised op shop I have ever seen, They even have an entire draw of self made belts!
Great cheap vintage jewelry
9/10

Birthright
Karens st
Tues- fri 10-4
Sat 10.30-1
Fab big shop, great handbags
9/10

Levin

Op shop
121 SH1
Tues - fri 930-330
Sat 930-1230
Cute little traditional churchy shop. Super cheap, bought 3 dresses and vintage togs for $1.50!!
7/10

Salvation army
SH1
9-4 mon - fri
930-1230 sat
lots of stock, pretty good prices
8/10

Arohanui hospice
Sh1
Mon- fri 10-4
Sat 10-1
Everything you want in an op shop, cheap, lots of stuff
10/10

Foxton

Dont bother - its crap!!

Woodville

The Vikings haul
Ross st
Second hand trader, lots of junk, expensive
3/10

The living room
Main road
Second hand trader,Books, bric a brac , expensive
2/10

Woodville mart
9-5 mon-fri
10-4 sat-sun
Chuckys bride lives here! some quite good stuff, some pricey - worth checking out their salt and pepper shaker collection - good prices, and royalty stuff.
6/10

Palmerston North

Salvation army
595 main st
9-5 mon- fri
10-2 sat
Very disappointing, big, lots of crap
3/10

St Vincent De Paul
248 Rangatikei st
Mon -fri 10-4
Fantastic, got my biggest haul here, great vintage shoes, really cheap
10/10

Arohanui Hospice Shop
284 Rangatikei st
10-5 mon-fri
sat mornings open
fantastic, great for pottery, glass, pretty good prices, huge
9/10

Eva's Wardrobe

2010-11-01T13:32:00.002+13:00

Sorry for the lack of posting, as I said I have been in South America.

I will blog about my vintage travels over the next few days.

Starting where we left off with Eva Peron.

So I was saying how Eva was a remarkable woman - both for good and for evil.

The highlight of her museum for me was of course the clothes.

She allegedly only wore her clothes once and during her famous tour of Europe she changed dresses four times a day. Imagine the excess baggage charges!

So here are a few pics of her dresses.

The black one is what she wore for an audience with the pope - the dress has a massive hood and train. I wonder what the poor pope thought, no doubt he was completely outdone in the costume department.

I love this suit and matching hat - and the accompanying photo of her in it.

And, the hats.......

Dont get me started on the hats!

Don't cry for me Argentina, part one

2010-10-18T12:01:00.003+13:00

So I am in buenos aires, I am one of
Those travellers that like to research a certain aspect of the place before I visit, and being a vintage girl who better than Eva Peron?
Love her or hate her she was one remarkable woman. Born in a desperatly poor pueblo she lost her father early. She harboured the outrageous desire to be famous and left for the city in her teens.
She fought her way to fame via theatre and then radio, then fate intervened when she met colonel Juan Peron. Eva began to show her unquenchable thirst for power, she was the backbone of Peron, masterminding his presidency and ensuring she had influence over every part of government. She placed her family members in positions of power And through setting up a "charity" had control over all on buenos aires. She had an enormous wardrobe and on her famous " rainbow tour" of Europe took her dressmaker and enough clothes for 4 changes per day. This is the dress she wore to receive the pope, I can't help wondering what the pope thought of this ostentatious woman!
So I read up on her before arriving and yesterday visited her museum. The clothes were awesome, and the videos of her speeches changed my opinion if her somewhat. I initially thought she was a selfish , manipulative meglomaniac, and she most probably was, however I really saw the suffering in her, she died of uterine cancer at 33 and for the year before her death was in great pain and was denied her spot in the limelight that she so adored. And in the end what was the point of all her acquisitions? All her clothes meant nothing in the end.
Apologies... cant load photos just now, will do so soon

Wainuiomata rocks

2010-10-06T16:17:00.003+13:00

I love my job.
On Monday I had two home visits in the delightful borough of wainuiomata. The upside to this is that I got to check out the op shop. This particular shop I have always felt holds great potential. On Monday this was realized.
Behold the bounty.

The first chocolate box opened the floodgates when the shop lady discovered I liked vintage. She bought me out the deerskin bag and then the second chocolate box.
Then I found this sleeping bag. Check out the wonderful lining.
I think I will take the lining out, what do you think I should do with it?

Having a Ball

2010-09-20T09:11:00.004+12:00

I don’t think I have been to a ball since high school, then they were awful affairs involving lots of shiny blue satin with puffy sleeves and angst about not being pretty enough to have a date.
Shudder..
But I am pleased to report that i have shrugged off the PTSD and attended a ball on Saturday night.
I have been swept up in the excitement of learning how to dance, Lindy particularly. I cant believe that there are a whole load of Wellingtonian’s who share my love (some say obsession..) with all things vintage. So although I only have 4 lessons under my belt I wasn’t about to miss the vintage ball the dance company put on – as part of the “windy Lindy” weekend.

It was everything I could have wished for... an 18 piece swing band, pretty fairy lights, men dressed up in fedoras, ladies with fancy ball gowns. And in this world guess what?
Men actually ask you to dance, I definitely don’t remember that from high school.
I tried my best, I was a little excited by the whole thing so completely forgot my newly made resolution to concentrate on following, but all the men were such gentlemen, if they minded they didn’t say (sorry James).

And I met my first fellow blogger – this was a big moment for me in this crazy blogging universe, I have always been a little envious of bloggers who write about how they met such and such and had tea with whatshername, but now I can! This is Leamomi , aka “thedreamstess”. Of course I met her by admiring her stunning gown (she made it). I hope we can meet up again and I will shamelessly pick her brains re sewing and dancing!

How many Radiograms does a girl need?

2010-09-12T13:53:00.003+12:00

mmmmm..

About three I reckon.

I have no idea how this collection came about.

I love the look of them though, nothing says vintage like a Radiogram.

Also they are very useful for keeping things on, This one ( the only one that actually works) I keep my Buddhist Shrine on,

and this one is my bedside table.

I plan on commisioning one for real use soon, but I need to invest in the needle.

Love that smooth deep sound, perfect for my swing 78"s.

At the moment i just borrow my sons 1980's record player to dance round the house to. Only when he is not at home of course, otherwise that would be "sooooooooo embarassing".

Its a womans world

2010-07-30T17:56:00.004+12:00

I am such a terrible hoarder that i found this womans mag from 1939 and have no recollection of when and where i got it!

It was obviously a fore runner of our gossip mags today, but oh so much more fun to read!

i dont know about you but I love the ads the most.

Here are a few to wonder over..

girls, girls, girls..

2010-07-03T18:41:00.003+12:00

Im a lazy blogger (as im sure you are all aware).
I have lots of pics and dresses to show you but for now im too lazy and will just show you one of my latest purchases.

A whole boxload of vintage girlie mags!
Yay! soft porn doesnt even cover it, i knew censorship was the name of the game but geez!
Tasteful pin up shots, chaste ads alluding to marital problems - all fixed with a delivery in a plain paper bag. My fav story..

BLACK LACE SPY QUEEN

"For seven years the allies tracked the most elusive espionage set up in Europe till they ran into a strange lead - a curvaceous redhead with a passion for expensive lingerie"
( I like that because i am a redhead who cant afford expensive lingerie)

And onto girls of different sorts..

This is my new baby girl Jess.
a curvaceous tortishell with a passion for hairties and my hot roller clips.

And my clever little sisters new blog page advertising her fairy party business.. spread the word if you are in need of a fairy

http://www.rubythesparklefairy.blogspot.com/

Wanda Jackson and the belt debacle...

2010-06-16T18:10:00.003+12:00

Hi all

Sorry for the slackness, i have been sewing overtime!

i have finished my 1941 dress!

Here is a terrible pic of me in it...

Now onto bigger and better things.

i have a date...

well I think its a date, Im not too sure- the rules havent been made clear yet.

Anyways.... a boy asked me out, put it that way.

To ...... WANDA JACKSON!!

Now just how cool is that?

So I immediatley looked at my pattern stash and decided to sew up this little number.

Now its all done but im not sure which belt buckle goes best.

Please help me decide.

Miss Ohio 1941

2010-05-24T21:06:00.005+12:00

Ok now im going to get serious about this vintage sewing business.

And to prove it i just spent a small fortune on 12 patterns from Ebay, yes, Ebay AMERICA..

Just saying that makes me feel so worldly. I really got a sense of what it must have been like in the 40's for the kiwi girl, lusting after those jaunty American styles but being stuck with our boring old Academy patterns here on this little island in the back of beyond.

So i decided to break out and import some fancy stuff.

I felt like i had brought over some never been seen before breed of animal when I opened the packet. Even the pattern covers were shinier, the writing a nicer font, the colours..yes colours on the pattern.

So now i sit, decision made about which one to do first.

It wasnt difficult, this is the quintessential 40's pattern for me, simple lines stylish but functional.

I am going to do this one carefully and with love. Im not going to rush in, im going to make a rough one first, to do the proper fitting and im going to enjoy each part.

This is the material i am using.
So as i carefully unwrapped her pieces you can imagine my joy when I discovered I could date her. The previous owner, 70 years ago had cut out pieces from a newspaper. Luckily she did because one of the pieces was half missing and now I can retrieve it.

The date is December 1941, Canton, Ohio. There was an article about Hedy Lamar and a disturbing amount of adverts for rat killer.

I cant believe that all going well I am going to own a dress from 1941.

I just have to figure out how to add 2 inches at the waist whilst keeping the bust and hips the same. Any tips?

Daisy the delightful dress dummy

2010-05-16T22:19:00.004+12:00

I have two new additions to show you this week.

Both related to my new obbsession - sewing.

After my disasterous dress - which I may add is still in the too hard basket, I decided that what I needed was a dress makers dummy. This will hopefully make it easier to fit things without me having to wiggle up and down in front of the mirror all the time.

So introducing Daisy...

And Daisy just happens to be wearing one of my latest creations - the pinstripe pencil skirt.

I am in love with this pattern - pencil skirts are so fab, you can dress them up or down and if you get the right length they look subtly sexy. This one is from a 50's pattern so is nice and high waisted.

Dont you think Daisy looks fetching?

She is a vintage dummy..of course.

Next up is Doug the dog. I have promised my sister in law that i will start sewing for my nephew and what better place to start than with my 50's pattern for soft toys. Its a series with a dog, cat, horse and rabbit. They are super cute and so old school looking.

I may have to make me a set too. Doug has no eyes or tail yet, so don't tell him hes a bit strange looking.

Facings are not my friends..

2010-05-02T14:31:00.004+12:00

I bought this lovely looking pattern the other week, looks simple, classic, bit of a challenge to make but nothing I cant handle.

I have been sewing for 2 months and i think i may have just a tinsy bit of an inflated idea of my own ability.

I embarked on it this weekend.

Anyone who has sewn with old patterns knows the joy of translating the scant instructions.

This pattern has a complicated facing that gets sewn on and then turned inside out, now I am about as good at working out spatial things as a blind man is at parallel parking, so it took me 5 goes to figure out which bit gets sewn onto what bit.

but, I did it...

Only trouble is now Ive got it to the point of the top sewn onto the bottom i have realised it

A) Is gignormous in the top even though I have altered it heaps
B) Looks like a matrons dress

C) the colour does nothing for me

What do you sewers do when you have this problem?

I have thrown it in disgust on my chair and plan to ignore it for a week.

A vintage week...

2010-04-28T18:41:00.003+12:00

I have had a pretty vintage week all in all, two opportunities to go all out with the vintage dressing, and both occasions focused on music.

I have fallen head over heels with the Andrews sisters I am suprised to say, thanks to these chicks below.... "The Beat Girls".

Rach and i went along to the Anzac night tribute - "we'll meet again". It was jolly good fun.

The Wellington town hall came alive - as it would have in the forties, with a big band - the RNZAF band and The Beat Girls doing all the old songs - how come i have never heard of "Dont sit under the Apple tree with anyone else but me" before, I have been humming it all week.

We were the youngest there and the only ones dressed up and it took all the discipline we could muster not to get up and dance, but we didnt want to wreck it for the oldies.

Then last night we went to a caberet night at my mates husband's bar.

Steve Carlin puts on a show every month or so and the event just begs for a fur and some pearls.

So I obliged.

The songs were from a later era than I had anticipated, not so much swing as croon, but it was all good fun and I had a dance to "The Lady is a Tramp".

I have to keep my reputation you know.

The night was stormy and I had spent an hour on my hair so I had to walk there looking - as my best friend oh so kindly put it - "like a strange green witch".

Now... please please visit this blog...

http://malepatternboldness.blogspot.com

It is truly the very best blog i have ever read.

I have spent the day laughing so hard i nearly fell off my chair.

Why he doesnt have his own TV show I have no idea.

Please comment me and tell me what you think - I just know you will love him

Anzac Day

2010-04-25T15:27:00.004+12:00

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them. LEST WE FORGET...

Anzac Day is an opportunity to remember the men and women who gave their lives in all wars - but particularly World War One.

I have never been to a dawn service before but decided to this year, as a mark of respect for my grandparents. My Grandad served in both World Wars, indeed he lied about his age so he could go to war.

Rachel and I dressed up and wore our poppies with pride.

Lets hear it for the humble PJ's

2010-04-19T21:21:00.005+12:00

I have not only had my time taken up by moving house recently, I have also begun a new hobby.

And like all of my hobbies it has turned into an obssesion!

After being burned badly by high school sewing classes i have always assumed I am not the kind of girl who would be any good at making my own clothes.

But neccessity has driven me to reviewing this self talk.

It is near on impossible to find 40's clothes and vintage in general is getting expensive.

Vintage patterns arent.

So I took a night class and low and behold..

I CAN SEW!!

I have been doing little else for the past few weeks.

Although not my first finished project I thought i would brag a little by showing off my new old PJ's.

Here is the pattern....

And here is my version...

Made from vintage wynciette and some new contrasting purple flanelette and using cool vintage buttons.

They are sooooo cosy - HUGE but comfy.

There is no stopping me now I know I can sew from the very scant instructions in vintage patterns. Next project is a skirt for the dawn service on ANZAC day next weekend.

And i have started my furniture buying in style with this baby from the Sally Army.

Doesnt it look fab with my formica table?

My kitchen is slowly taking shape.

And I plan to use my sewing skills to knock me up some gingham curtains.

New House, old Junk

2010-04-15T22:40:00.005+12:00

I hope you will all forgive me for a whole month of not blogging.

I have been very busy moving house.

As some of you were aware myself and my son lived in a Buddhist Centre for a couple of years, and at the end there I was living in the garage!

So time came for me to re embrace the wonders of Sky HDI Tv, teen sleepovers and bathrooms under the same roof.
I vascillated between buying a place or renting but renting won the day after i spied a cute little 1940's house

So voila..

I dont have any pics of the outside today but here are some "before" pics of us moving in...

This is my favourite room of the house, partly because it is still a novelty to not have to walk down a driveway in the middle of the night to visit it! But mostly because it is going to become the Art Deco bathroom of my dreams!

This is the lounge - much potential

And of course, the fab period kitchen.... I am itching to turn it into a 50's kitchen.

So i have lots of work to do, lots of furniture to buy and lots of junk to re-house!

I am loving the little things like being able to have friends over for proper cups of tea!

I will post lots of pics in the future as my vintage house takes shape

bad bad blogger

2010-03-19T23:12:00.002+13:00

Hi all
Sorry for not blogging!
Been busy looking for my perfect 50's house (which i have found!) and sewing my 1950's wiggle dress.
Will update you on both these things very soon.
xx

Serendipity

2010-03-06T11:28:00.005+13:00

I feel like there is some kind of force field sucking me into a vortex and I will pop out the other end at 1945.

Let me explain..

I started off this project being quite broad with my era of vintage interest. It started off with a love of the 50's clothes and the idea of being a lady and making some kind of effort with my appearance and behaviour.

I still love the wiggle dresses and the hair - in fact I have a number of business ideas floating round my head to do with maximising my new found knowledge in this area.

However I have been more taken lately with the 40's.

I am in love with the tailored dressing, the simple silhouette, the rationing leading to thriftiness and the whole idea that I could dress just like my nana used to.

So consequently I have been searching specifically for 40's clothes on trade me and the like.

Man have I had some successes.

I am planning to do some posts on the finds i have made - but I am interested in the stories behind the clothes.

I have aquired 2 long frockcoats for example, that were made in London and have an old cigarette smoke smell that makes them seem so exotic.

And strange coincidences keep happening that make me think there is some invisible pull towards me getting more and more involved in the vintage lifestyle...

Take last night for example.

I caught up with my friend Luke in town and we decided to walk to a bar I had not visited but had heard was good.

Turns out it is decorated entirely vintage and it so happened there was a vintage swing dance event on - held by the dance company that provides swing lessons that I have been badgering Luke to attend lessons with me.

That was a little spooky.
We bravely made up our own dancing while the experts did the proper stuff.

great fun.

And then there is the cute little 1940's house that materialised in my search to buy a place.

Where will it all end?

Adventures in Era Appropriate Underwear

2010-02-27T01:38:00.004+13:00

I have felt for a while that I havent been able to fully live the retro life without wearing the right Era specific underwear.

So imagine my delight when I found these at one of my local op shops.

A girdle.

A good old fashioned way to squeeze it all in.

I had anticipated that it would morph me into a size 6.

It didnt even shave 2 inches off my waist.

But in the spirit of the project I gave it its first outing. To my favourite bar Mighty Mighty, where I usually feel right at home.

Tonight however was not much fun.

My friend Rachel put it well when she said it felt as if we had stumbled into orientation week for Bachelor of arts students.

Everyone was 18.

Not only that but wearing variations of 1980's fashions, poor babies, they werent around the first time to know how tragic it all was.

But there they were, trying to be ice cool and edgy.

Its very difficult to be edgy in a girdle.

And when you are in a girdle and twice everyone else's age you just want to go home and get out of your girdle.

I made a depressing discovery..

The 2 inches off my waist just got shifted around and popped out the top, like a chest high muffin top.

So it was time to depart.

The best thing about a girdle?

The mindblowing relief you feel when you take it off.

Here is a photo of me with a skinny waist, as there has to be some incentive for getting me back into the thing.

Art Deco Weekend

2010-02-22T19:35:00.004+13:00

Every year Napier holds an Art Deco weekend.

In the 1920's almost the entire city was destroyed by an earthquake.

When they rebuilt they did so in the modern style - Art deco.

Therefore it is a monument to the incredible taste they had back then.

So in Feb there is a big party to celebrate - art deco events non stop. Everyone dresses up - even the tots!

There are lovingly restored cars..

the stage is brought back to its former glory...and you can pretend for a weekend that you are a 1920's girl hanging around your hotel lobby waiting for that dapper gentleman to leave his calling card.

At work..and other things

2010-02-16T22:19:00.005+13:00

Crikey life gets away on you doesnt it?

School is back and me and my son are into our routine again. I havent found spare time to blog though, mainly because i have a new obbsession..sewing.

I have joined a night class on dressmaking and am very excited about it.

In fact anything that isnt nailed down gets sewn onto something. i dont know how to do much other than cut out and darts but am practising my straight lines on all kinds of things.

I thought I would share with you my Tuesdays..

Tuesday is by far my favourite day.

I pop into Dunbar Sloane - auction house before work and scope out the bargains. And there are ALWAYS bargains. I dont know why more people havent cottoned on to buying from auctions. Prices are so so low and you can still get really awesome retro and art deco things for a song. Especially 50's stuff - the dealers arent interested in it yet.

This was last weeks pickings...

Then I sit in court with the team..

I know..motley looking bunch arent they? Can you believe these guys are the face of Youth Justice in Wellington?

Then I pop back to the auction when my lot numbers come up.

The Bakelite radio is MINE!!!

The biggest dress up party in the world..

2010-02-06T09:20:00.004+13:00

The Wellington Sevens tournament.

Imagine 10 000 people all dressed up in outrageous outfits. Noone goes to actually watch the rugby!
It doesnt matter how conservative people usually are, on sevens weekend they let their inner creativity flow. And the beer.

My friends own some bars here in town and they roped a few of us into helping out with the enormous street party that they set up outside.
So I was a serving wench for the night.Of course, you know me, any excuse to get dressed up, so I had a ball.

I managed to take a few pics to show you some of the amazing costumes.

Seriously, every year I just cannot believe how much trouble people go to.

Check it out...Apparently these guys started the day as a whole sandwich!

My Performance Appraisal

2010-02-01T17:37:00.006+13:00

I dont know about yours but my profession requires yearly performance appraisals.
This is always a little nerve wracking as you are never quite sure what hoops you are going to have to jump through or how your boss sees you.

Today was mine.

I couldnt help thinking if only she would assess me on my satorial skills and style ability.

Then I thought..

Ok then, I will do a self assessment.

So here it is.

My Vintage Performance Appraisal self assessment.

Hair

Achieve - JUST.. I feel that I have put in a lot of effort lately with my hair, but that I have tended to stick to a few styles and not really embraced being adventurous. I could try harder by getting up earlier or being more organised with curling the night before.

Case in point - this is me this morning walking to work, mind you I did curl my hair at home, then the rain killed it.
And this is me after sorting it out in the bathroom at work.

Makeup

Achieve - I think I have made 100% progress with this, I previously wore a little eye makeup only, now I am a lipstick girl - ALL THE TIME!!

Clothes

Achieve - I think I have met most Key performance indicators in this area, apart from a fail in the era appropriate undergarment section and not being very adventurous with changing era's.

I am dressing vintage most days and have learned lots about what goes with what and which decade things belong in.

My professional development plan includes learning to sew so I can make some 40's clothes - an era I am loving more and more.

Overall Style

Achieve - I think i have improved my style lots this last few months. I am more polished - mostly. I have had mostly favourable comments and really feel I am living up to my individuality.

So all in all, not a bad report. But like all performance reviews, you need to have something to work on so you dont sound like a total tosser!

3 D and the animated junk shop..

2010-01-30T21:37:00.004+13:00

Yesterday Wellington really pulled out all the stops.

All kiwis know about Wellington's reputation as the "windy city", but yesterday there was not even a breeze.

Steve, my son's dad was on his first trip to Wellington, so we did the tourist thing.

So I thought I would invite you guys along too.

Show you some of our favourite things in town, with a bit of a vintage twist of course.

We originally planned to go to Avatar 3D, but all sessions were booked when we arrived.

So we headed to Te Papa - the museum of New Zealand.

And what do you know? there was two chances to don our 3D glasses and watch movies... one about the colossal squid (dont ask) and then the destruction of Pompei.

Not quite avatar, but it was free.

Te Papa is a fantastic museum, there is so much to see that I have visited numerous times and havent been to every exhibit yet. I finally got to check out the "Golden days" show, of course loving everything vintage it was perfect for me. It is a movie about the good old days of NZ's history, set in a magical junk shop. It was great for photo opportunities, with all kinds of things decorating almost every inch of the place.

After Te Papa we ate at our favourite place - Sweet mothers kitchen. I should really say "kitsch- en" as it is decorated in all things tacky. They do the best curly fries in the world, and the service is spectacular.

Then to end the day we took a drive around the waterfront and watched the Sun Princess cruise ship chugging out of the harbour.

As we all say..

"There is nowhere better than Wellington on a sunny day"

Vintage needle books

2010-01-28T20:06:00.004+13:00

I think I have found what I want to collect.

I have been looking for something to collect for a little while now, but didnt want anything too expensive or ordinary.

I went op shopping yesterday and found a packet of vintage sewing stuff, including these wonderful cardboard needle books.

I found one previously and didnt think much of them but after having done a little research have discovered that they are collectible items and come in many different shapes and sizes.

My favourite one is the elephant hunters. It is a 3d pop out needle book, soooooo un PC.

I am a buddhist vegetarian and I must admit it made me shudder at first, but I am guessing it is pretty darned old and if we are living this vintage life we have to acknowledge the not so great things about the era as well as the great things.

Now I need to find out more about these little books, does anyone out there have any expert knowledge they can impart? About value, places to find them, history etc?

As an aside - I want the world to know that Wellington DOES get hot sometimes, here is me trying to cool down whilst blogging.....

The best birthday ever!

2010-01-27T22:39:00.006+13:00

It was my birthday today.

Wellington FINALLY decided it would play along with this summer business and put on the hottest day of the year so far.

So after a lovely easy day at work and a spot of op shopping ( I will post my finds tommorrow) I headed down to the Botanic gardens to watch a band and hang out with my family.

I packed a picnic,

My sister came down from Rotorua,my sons dad was down from Auckland and my friend Rachel provided the glasses for the wine.

The band was fantastic and the atmosphere was chilled.

Here are some photos.

I'm Baaaack

2010-01-25T18:35:00.006+13:00

Hi all

Today marks the return of my enthusiasm for blogging.

I returned to Wellington, work, the Buddhist Centre and it was all a bit too much so I reverted back to my modern ways a little.

However I decided that I would get back on track and vintage it out.

So today was an exciting double birthday celebration for my friend Emira and myself.

Emira is 6 today, and I am 36 on Wednesday.

Emira kindly shared the limelight of cake blowing out and present opening with me, and her sisters and mum made a great feast.

Interesting karma for a 6 year old to have a bunch of monks and nuns turn up to her party!

The girls were pleased to see me back in my vintage gear, Marshida informed me that a blog all about me was to follow soon.

I was then kidnapped to the play room where I was forced to dress as a vintage bride, with Tamina as my vintage bridesmaid.

Thanks girls for a great party.

After all the food we worked it off with a spot of putting publicity in letter boxes.

Lamchog and I looked at the map and chose a road that looked like it nicely curved around back to home. Wellington is very hilly and we didnt realise that it curved all right.... down, down, down and then up , up , up.

So I'm glad to be back.

Hope this blog finds you all well and happy

fellow blogger promotion post..

2010-01-21T20:52:00.002+13:00

I am continuing to be slack on the posting front.
So sorry about that, should be back in action in a day or two.
Meanwhile...
I would appreciate it if you took the time to read a special blog.
My friend Marshida wanted to write a blog too, and has taken the iniative and started one up.
I was going to help her out with getting started, but didnt - sorry Marshida!

Anyway, Marshida is learning to meditate at our kids class at the Buddhist Centre and is blogging about what she learns.
Please check it out and support her in her efforts to become more peaceful and compassionate.

She completely puts me to shame as a Buddhist.
Her blog is about meditating.... mine is about clothes.

mmmm...

http://marshidameditates.blogspot.com/

Women of steel

2010-01-14T11:54:00.002+13:00

Just seen this in the UK Independent..

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/60-years-on-the-women-of-steel-are-honoured-1866888.html

It fits in with my story about my nan working in the ammunition factory during the war.

I love this picture, check out the heels on that gal!

And having seen a fair few pics of women workers, they all looked this glam while doing "mans work".

Love, it, love it.

short break in transmission

2010-01-13T14:54:00.002+13:00

I have temporarily disapeared into cyber space and for this I apologise!
I am housesitting and havent been able to get onto the net to publish anything.
However i can say that it is 14 degrees c here in Wellington and i have had to wear stockings and a winter coat.. and this is summer?

To add to my not so fantastic mood I found this little "gem" in our NZ news site.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/wellbeing/3224629/Why-35-is-the-new-40

HHMMPPHHHH is all i can say!
I will be back soon I promise
xx

X4EYGVNNGD79

Dive,dive dive

2010-01-09T20:19:00.004+13:00

Tommorrow I return home.

The weather forecast is storms and wind.

So I have been desperately trying to wring every last moment out of my summer holiday.

The one thing Ciarann wanted to do on his holiday was to snorkel.

I was racked with panic at this idea, the thought of having to breathe through a narrow tube that has recently held someone elses spit is one thing, close encounters with sting rays and possible moray eels quite another.

But, as a mother you often have to do things with a forced smile and a "gosh that sounds like a wonderful idea".

So I hired a wetsuit and hoped noone had peed in it, thrust my flippers onto my feet and went for it.

Its very very difficult getting into the water at all with flippers on, let alone being graceful or glamourous.

We were at Goat Island, a marine reserve where the fishes are your friends, literally.

They were in no way aware of the fact that we are predators and they are prey. They almost laugh at you at they swim right at your face then veer off at the last moment.

We had a lovely time, swimming around. Ciarann had a bit of a freak out when i spied a stingray, but otherwise we just floated around chasing enormous fish.

So thats it really, we may get one more beach trip in before I fly out tommorrow and then I go back to the real world.

See you all there.

Aunty Isla

2010-01-07T21:04:00.005+13:00

Yesterday I headed out to the big smoke of Auckland.

The vintage shops were beckoning..

I was very impressed with the amount of thrift shops and the cheapness of the vintage clothes shops.

Much better than Wellington.

My finds of the day were an old hairdryer - the kind you stick over your head, a rock and roll circle skirt which fits perfectly and this little beauty of a dress, I know its not really the right era for the blog, but its so damned cute and comfy!

But one of the main reasons for the trip was to visit my Aunty Isla.

Isla is one of the most stylish people I know, she always looks amazing.

And she is 96!

Its always so easy to not visit when Im up here, we talk ourselves into being so busy, but this time I really wanted to spend some time with her and hear her stories.

She used to be a dressmaker so I knew she would have some interesting opinions on style.

So we had a lovely morning.

She insisted on little sandwiches and cake served on lovely china - I felt so special!

We had a discussion about style and she told me that she applies lipstick first thing in the morning every day, people have come over early in the morning and asked what the occasion is!

She has her hair set every week and dislikes the hairstyles of today "they always look like their hair is not done properly"

She remembers that back in the 40's not many people used to have hair professionally treated, they did it themselves, she preferred rolls.

She says that she has always found it important to dress well and care about her appearance. She refuses to wear flat shoes, although she finds it painful to wear heels! We laughed about our vanity!

I shared the story with you about my nana and Wallis Simpson a few weeks ago.

Well Isla at that time lived in Masterton - a provincial NZ town and she remembers that it was huge news here, she says that in her dressmaking studio where she was teaching all the students were listening with baited breath to the story of the abdication.

One girl was a sobbing mess about the romance of it all, saying "he should be allowed to marry the girl he loves"!

After the royal wedding Isla made 5 copies of the dress for people! Both for wedding gowns and for evening dresses. She remembers Wallis as a style icon.

Isla introduced my grandma to my grandad, she was married to his brother and was my grandma's best friend! I heard the romantic story all the way through. I never knew either of my grandparents so it was a poignant moment for me.
Alas we couldnt talk forever but I wanted a photo of her for the blog.

She said of course, and retired to her room to apply lippy, do her hair and put on her best jewelry.

It was hilarious because this is exactly what I do! I knew then that I am on the right track of getting into the spirit of days gone by!

So here is my beautiful, stylish and wonderful Aunty Isla.

Sexist or Sexy???

2010-01-04T21:11:00.004+13:00

I bought myself a late xmas present the other day.

An Elvgren pin up calender.

Full of inspiring outfits and great hair it is, so I decided to try and do the hairstyle of Miss January today.

I had limited success.

My mum picked up the calender and commented that she thought it was sexist.
I hadnt thought that way before. I think I am so immersed in the gorgeousness of all the fifities clothes and apparent glamour that I hadn't considered such pretty pictures could be seen that way.
But I guess they could be.
I like what Elvgren said..

asked what he thought of American women, Elvgren said they "are infinitely smarter today. They are more beautiful than ever before. They are more natural. They are not tying themselves in like they used to. And they are not looking like boys any more, thank God."

That doesnt sound too sexist I guess.

What do you think?

Tea parties..of a different sort

2010-01-03T21:20:00.004+13:00

We have spent the last couple of days in Auckland with my brother and sister in law.
Today was the family trip to the zoo, always a classic.
Auckland zoo is very nice, lots of trees and natural(ish) habitat.

But I am not a huge zoo fan, a couple of hours and Im done, anyway I ended up being an exhibit for a few minutes - thanks to my mothers attempt to get a good shot for the blog..

I got a bit of a history lesson, as i often do now I have these fifities googles on.

Chimps tea parties..

In 1956 chimps were imported from London to both Auckland and Wellington Zoos to perform for the masses.
Apparently it was a great crowd puller, Wellington Zoo's website notes up to 2000 vistors came to watch something that to be honest doesnt look too different from your average 3 year old toddler tea party.
The tea parties ended in Auckland in 1964 and 1970 in Wellington. The Aucklanders obviously being a little more enlightened.. or being a richer zoo.

So poor Janie is now the only remaining chimp from these times. She looks very bored, relegated to pulling paper shreds out of a water cooler bottle.
But she cant be assimilated with others because she doesnt know she is a chimp. I wonder if she misses her tea parties?
Here is a link to a great little video of a london tea party.

CHIMPS TEA PARTY

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Rockabilly on

2010-01-01T21:34:00.004+13:00

I’m back..
After listening to a bit of Kitty, Daisy and Lewis this morning I was sorted right out. If you havent heard of these guys I strongly suggest you do so immediatley. They are a teenage band from the UK who play rocking music that they produced themselves on authentic 50’s recording equipment.
check them out on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxW3Ed7GrhQ

They inspired me to whip up a bit of a rockabilly hairdo and do some serious hoovering.

Then a quick change into my togs and these awesome shorts I found at the hospice shop and to the beach.
I feel a lot better about my wearing of makeup and the like to the beach after I found this photo in “The Hutton Getty Picture Collection” by Nick Yapp. Note the necklace!

Out with the old..

2009-12-31T21:27:00.003+13:00

I am boycotting New Years Eve this year.

I will see the new year in most probably but it will be with my family, playing a board game, which thinking about it is very fifties. I have baked up a storm, Banoffi pie and prepared the special maggi onion soup dip.

I have been suprisingly morose today, and even my mum noticed..commenting that I havent curled my hair today. Im not sure why, I feel a bit disconnected and unable to live in the moment, concerned about the coming year and what it may have in store. You know when you have been looking forward to your holidays and then you are too scared to enjoy them, worrying about when they are going to end? Thats where I’m at today.

My mum and I pulled out all the stuff I have had stored under her house for the past 22 years and went through it all, deciding what to keep and what to cast away into the mists of time.This was a great thing to do at the end of a decade.
These are my musings..

What happened to the lost art of letterwriting? Well, I know what happened, emails. I found shopping bags full of letters from various friends at various times in my life. I remembered how special and wanted you felt when a letter found its way into your letterbox. I know lots of people have commented on this loss so I say LETS BRING BACK LETTERWRITING. Imagine people can keep forever your thoughts and feelings. Just like I have kept my friends thoughts on how hot jason Donovan is and how they passed Geography and failed French.
Best of all though were the love letters. I even recieved a very odd and disturbing picture of a graveyard with my name on a gravestone from a prospective beau. This does give an indication of the kind of boys my teenage self courted.

I also discovered old photos, some from my errant teenage years. They were a pointed reminder of how lucky i will be if my son comes through his teen years unscathed. I have created so much apalling karma in regards to keeping my mother up worrying all night.

I did manage to find a couple of treasures which I will take back to Wellington with me.

So after reviewing the various phases of my life I feel a sense of expectation about the next decade. I know the mistakes I have made and the successes I have, and I know a little more about what brings me happiness. I will make my new years resolutions well equipped.
Happy new Year everyone xx

2009-12-30T21:44:00.003+13:00

New Years eve eve..
I thought I would reflect today on my project as my month is almost up.

I have discovered a number of things about myself, some good, some questionable.
Firstly – I have become acutely aware of how I look at any given point in time. I could tell you right now how much lipstick i have on and how much hair is out of place.

Secondly I have learnt how to pose for the camera – I have felt some affinty for Posh with her “one foot forward and look daggers at the camera” pose. However I’m sure Posh hasnt had to perfect the art whilst taking her own photo. Believe me its slightly more difficult.
Thirdly I actually really like taking care of my appearance. I feel much more confident and attractive and I am not afraid of being caught out by a stray handsome man if one should materialise.

I am a shameless exhibitionist. I always suspected I was, but there is nothing like writing a blog to realise just how much one loves the sound of ones own voice.

I have made a number of suprising discoverys:

• A girl cannot have enough gloves – I cant believe I never knew this before. Its not enough to have a nice little white pair. Therefore I was immensely pleased to find this stash in my local hospice shop.
• I have begun to say things like “immensely pleased”
• If you dress like a lady you begin to act like a lady. My posture has improved and I smile sweetly at men, old ladies and small children. I also have insane urges to demonstrate the wonders of refridgerators.
• The hair of golden era women was not naturally curly. This one discovery has changed my entire life. I am not exagerating. Never again will I be shackled by the hair of my birth.
• I have become more interested and respectful of my Nana’s generation. I am planning to interview a couple of older women, which I am really looking forward to.

Things I want to improve on:

I want to be less concerned about the look itself and get to the point where I AM the look, where I dont even think about it, it just comes as naturally as breathing.

I want to get back to thinking about other people, instead of thinking about myself all the time. I need to get back on track in this regard.

I want to explore the rules that fifities women lived by, the etiquette and the lifestyle. In fact I think this may be the next stage of my blog project. I would love to get my hands on Amy Vanderbilt’s “Guide to Gracious Living” book. If anyone knows where I can get one please let me know.

So to summarise... This has been a fantastic month, I have felt crazy and eccentric at times but have discovered a well of attractiveness that I didnt know I had and that I didnt know could be tapped into so easily.
So if you guys will have me i think I will continue with the project for a little longer. Is that ok??

The Bedroom Commandos

2009-12-29T21:33:00.005+13:00

My family live next door to a disused cement works.
Its all ruined and atmospheric and has a lake alongside it which used to be the quarry.
(photo thanks to someone called sids1 on flickr)

Growing up us local teens told each other lots of stories about the quarry and how there are all kinds of things buried there, ghost stories the lot.
However the other day at the tea party I discovered there was an element of truth to some of the tales.

The quarry was in use until the day they hit a spring. It quickly flooded the place – so quick that they were unable to retrieve the trucks. The works themselves became ruined when the american army, here for training, used them for target and bombing practice.
Apparently forces were stationed around Warkworth and some local girls married soldiers. This reminded me of a story I read in the book “Wellington Telling tales” by Chris Maclean.

In 1943 a Maori soldier picked up an American soldiers plate of steak and flung it in his face. This started the “Battle of Manners Street” which was an out and out brawl between NZ troops and American Marines on the streets of Wellington.
The cause of this unrest appears to be the “invasion” by the Americans, coming over here (15-45000 of them!) and being given preference in shops and restaurants, and preference by the local ladies.

Yes these yanks were a cut above the average kiwi bloke. Chris Maclean writes “NZ women were often attracted by the Americans courtesy and sophistication, qualities they sometimes found lacking in local men”. They knew how to charm, and what a lady really wants – namely chocolates, cigarettes and nylon stockings.

I can imagine that in those days kiwi blokes would have probably been a bit lacking in the charm department, they would have been mostly farmers and not really that au fait with the latest fashions. So they lucked out with the ladies for this period in history. They grumpily referred to the Americans as the “bedroom commandos” and apparently the catch phrase of the time was “the yanks are overpaid, oversexed and over here”.

Nzhistory.net.nz describes the dances which were organised at the camps themselves or at the services clubs. “Here there was no liquor, and only 'nice girls' were invited. The YMCA in Auckland also organised Saturday night dances at its Downtown Club, with evening dresses and plenty of chaperones.
If you wanted a rather less restrained atmosphere you went to a cabaret or a nightclub. In Wellington the Majestic Cabaret became famous. Here, to an excellent swing band, marines and their New Zealand partners would foxtrot or jitterbug or jive home to the 'Chattanooga Choo-choo'. In Auckland you might go to the El Rey nightclub for liquor and steaks accompanied by a band playing Glenn Miller hits. With women in long dresses and the Americans in their handsome uniforms, it was all very glamorous; and it was hardly surprising that at such places New Zealand women said yes to more than the obligatory one dance expected of 'polite girls'.”

Oh to be a girl in those times, It sounds all very exciting. No wonder the poor kiwis were so cross. I think possibly in the long run it made kiwi boys pick up their game a bit. Nowadays we certainly arent expected to pitch in in the miking sheds and some men are (allegedly) quite proficient at present shopping.

Here is my pic for today, on the beach again with my sister in law.

Party Etiquette

2009-12-27T21:55:00.003+13:00

Welcome one and all to the party season.

As all of us will I’m sure be attending a variety of parties I thought I would suggest a few helpful tips. These will ensure you make a good impression and do not offend the hosts and your companions.

I myself attended a small party this afternoon. Just a small gathering but a social occasion just the same.

Of course appropriate attire is neccessary.
“The place to wear your long dress and handsome shoes is at a formal tea; then you also get out your freshly cleaned white gloves and your new hat. For informal tea you would wear no such outfit, but instead, a dressy street length dress. Spotless white gloves, dress shoes, silk hose, and your best hat are appropriate accessories.”

As I was dressed in my day clothes...

I changed into what I imagined a “dressy street length dress” may be. It was another hot day and my white gloves are far from spotless so i passed on those, however I did wear dress shoes. This meant that i had to hobble over a dirt road.

I had invited a male companion, who was oblivious to my blog project. He was concerned that he had under dressed – so I knew I was on the right track.
The party was small, just the hostess, us and a couple.

“Introductions can be fun if you have the four basic rules at your finger- tips:
1. Present a gentleman to a lady.
2. Present a young lady to an older one.
3. Present a single woman to a married one.
4. Present a lesser individual to one of reknown.”

I dont think any of us is particularly reknown, and certainly none of us would consider ourself a “lesser individual”. But nevertheless all men and women were duly introduced.

My companion was sorely lacking in the following:

1. “Gentleman seats lady nearest him, and she takes her place slowly enough so he has a chance to pull out her chair. She is seated from the left and rises from the right.”

2. “Take your napkin as soon as you are seated, and arrange gloves or handbag in your lap so they won't fall on the floor. Never put them on the table.

What about the floor?

3. Hostess always gives the signal to start eating -- by starting to eat.”

I especially like the next rule, I am definitely a girl who likes to have the last word.

“As usual, the woman has the last word. In parting, it is the man's place to say "I am glad to have met you," to which the lady replies, "Thank you," and any additional cordial remark. But remember girls, let the man express his joy first.”

2009-12-26T20:35:00.007+13:00

I hope everyone has had a wonderful christmas.

I hope that you have all spent time with family and friends, eaten lots and given and recieved great presents.

I have done all of the above and now feel fat and happy!

I have been thinking about all the people who have been less fortunate than myself this christmas and I hope that some of my good fortune will be able to ripen upon them somehow.

We spent another day at the beach and it was blissful, hot sun, warm sand and clear blue water. I will not bore you all with more photos of me prancing round the place ,apart from this one of me playing with my son, but instead thought i would post some lovely beach pin up pics of Betty Page.

Betty I must say has been a bit of an inspiration to me. I think her life story was pretty amazing and I especially like the interview she gave just a few years ago when she said that she sometimes pretended the camera was her boyfriend, but never thought the photos were sexual. Isnt that so cute!

Let me know how your christmas has gone xx

Merry New Zealand Christmas

2009-12-24T19:33:00.004+13:00

Today was the perfect christmas eve.

A dash of window shopping at my favourite local shop – Red letter – check out the El Casco desk accessories.

Followed by sunbathing and swimming with my family.
Now.. I have discovered that its all well and good being perfectly made up and well groomed at all times, but what about when you get hot and want to go for a swim?
To begin with I did as a proper lady would have, dog paddling with my head above water, makeup and sunglasses intact, but that was an impossibility with a teenage son.
So this is how I ended up..
Lucky I had the hindsight to remove the lippy or I would have looked like something from a horror movie.
I ended today by wrapping presents and baking mince pies.
Have a wonderful christmas. I hope it is full of peace, love and happiness. xx

NO MORE PRESENTS

2009-12-23T20:42:00.004+13:00

MORE christmas shopping.
Will it ever end?

How much money have you all spent this xmas? Please make me feel better about the wanton use of my credit card!

Half the trouble is this little guy. My new nephew,my first and only nephew thus far.
I have rediscovered toy shops and their delights. I am quite suprised that you can buy toy coffee perculators, laptops and of course a zillion different versions of cell phones.
Ciarann and I checked out the slide with attached circus mirror...
I have requested from Santa an array of project related presents. It would be great if they had gift cards for Salvation army shops or auction houses. That would be me sorted. My mum refuses to buy me anything preowned. I haven’t told her about my retro knicker find, I think she may commit me.
Maybe next year I will buy all my presents from auctions, that may be a whole different blog. Peoples reactions to their second hand presents.. now that would make good reading.

The King and I

2009-12-22T21:16:00.005+13:00

The Antiques Roadshow was on television tonight, The whole family loves this program. I remember watching it as a little girl while eating crumpets, after going for a Sunday walk.
Tonight there was a brooch given to someone by a king. Which reminded me of our family connection to royalty. Granted it is a somewhat tenous connection but I am going to share it all the same.
My Nana worked before the war as a housemaid. She worked in a number of illustrious houses but the most impressive was 16 Cumberland terrace, Regents Park.
This was the home of Mrs Wallis Simpson.
Of course Im sure you all know the story of Wallis Simpson and her spectacular seduction of the King of England. Wallis and her husband moved to England from America in 1929. She was from the South and had been divorced previously.

Wallis was introduced to Prince Edward in 1931 and her and Ernest became part of the Royal social circle. Over the next six years she became more and more indispensible to the Prince and he fell in love with her. The Prince then became the King of England.
Eventually it all became too much for poor Ernest and he had an affair of his own. This prompted Wallis to ask for a divorce and she moved into 16 Cumberland terrace.

My Mum remembers Nana telling her that the King dined at Mrs Simpsons house often and my Nana served at their table. She once upended a bowl of prunes into the King of England's lap.

Apparently the King did all he could to stifle news of the Simpsons divorce but soon the newspapers were full of the fact that the King was in love with a recent american divorcee. He then made the decision to abdicate the throne to marry her.

My Nana (most inconveniently) became unwell and was away from work when the news broke. Wallis immediatly left London and the house was closed.
A detective visited Nana and warned her about not speaking of the events and she recieved a letter from Ernest Simpson offering her a reference. Here is a letter from the housekeeper speaking of “the terrible affair”.

So that was my Nana’s involvement in “The love story of the century”. I hope she didn't do too much damage with those prunes.

presents from the past

2009-12-21T20:24:00.004+13:00

Every year I swear I'm not going to spend a fortune on presents, every year I fail.

But talking to my mum and reading other peoples blogs have made me think that maybe things weren't so different even back in the fifties.

Nana had 3 kids and from what mum says they all got plenty of presents.

So what presents were de rigour in the fifties?

You couldnt go past the latest annual - either for a boy or girl, Rupert or Bunty.

I found an excerpt from the 1958 Bunty annual.

The Four Marys - "Fun at a boarding school with a frolicsome foursome"

My mum used to ask for a doll or a toy sweet shop

She also got sugar mice in her stocking and maybe a skipping rope. Thats not so different from the lynx deodorant and alarm clock that Im getting for my son this christmas. I think I should add an orange and some nuts for authenticity.

I do have Nana to blame for starting the family tradition 60 years ago of filling a pillow case with presents. It takes an awful lot of presents to fill an pillowcase.

I was pleased that my hair stayed in place throughout the whole stressful mall experience.

Family Fun

2009-12-20T20:48:00.008+13:00

I thought today I would take the opportunity to introduce my family.

I am staying with them in Warkworth, North of Auckland where it is sunny and warm.

My poor mothers reaction to my 24/7 vintage dressing was initially that of "what will the neighbours think" but she is coming around fast. See..I even got her to do a pin up pose with me! She has no idea why i would be so obbsessed with the 50's, she still remembers with horror her mother putting curlers in her hair.

My dad is more concerned about my computer use. He thinks I should be "In the real world". Mind you he has a great mistrust of technology. He doesnt own a cellphone and has only just learnt how to work an ATM.

Ciarann - my son, has a friend up to stay for a few days and points out at every opportunity that I am not cool. But I know he secretly likes my style!! He is getting sick of me pointing a camera in his face all the time though and works hard to perfect his stroppy thirteen year old look.

We live by beautiful beaches which gives me ample opportunity to pose with lovely background scenery in my awesome new reproduction swimsuit by Ginger Lover, check them out on www.ginger-lover.com .Gosh..when did I turn into such a diva!

Encore

2009-12-19T21:01:00.004+13:00

Sorry I didnt post yesterday.

I have been having too much fun up here in Auckland.

The reason we came up so early was to go to see Green Day in concert. '

Last night Ciarann and I went together and tonight he is going again with his friend.

Of course it was a good excuse to get all dressed up, much to Ciarann's apparent embarrassement. He would have preferred me a la punk.

Needless to say I am a little nervous about tonight and the boys going it alone, what with mosh pits, crowd surfing and dehydration but have tried to remember MY teenage days. I clearly recall being right at the front of an Icehouse gig at the age of 15, and went alone to a Bobby Brown concert. I decided I wanted to be right in the front so latched onto the coattails (literally) of a huge biker dude and he pulled me with him right to the rails.

mmm.. maybe I should stop remembering now.

The concert was amazing by the way. Much better than Bobby Brown.

They played for 3 hours and did at least 3 songs as an encore.

Which got me thinking about encores, they are funny things. Everyone expects them and you know the band has planned them but you still have to go through the motions.

I didnt have time to research the history of encores, and when it became expected that they would occur- instead of just being spontaneous, but I did find out this interesting bit of information about Elvis Presley.

" Elvis Presley never played encores; a practice his manager Col. Tom Parker felt was the best manner by which to leave audiences wanting. The now-famous phrase "Elvis has left the building" was used at the beginning of his career when Presley was not the headliner, followed by a plea for the audience to return to their seats so as to watch those artists following Presley. Once he became a headliner, it was invariably followed by a polite "thank you, and good night", to imply to those present at the concert that there was not going to be an encore."

Thanks Wikipedia.

If anyone has anymore information about encores it would be greatfully recieved.

Moving on..

2009-12-17T22:10:00.005+13:00

Today was insane.

As I said yesterday tonight my holiday begins.

However first I had to get through my last day of work and an unexpected hurdle.

My friend rang me last night, she had an altercation at her flat and needed to move out in a hurry. Like today in a hurry, and could I please help her move.

I enjoy a challenge and I figured that Buddha has probably determined that I must need a bit more good karma before I head up to waste it all on sea and sand.

So after working at court, attending our xmas function and begging for time off I met Rach at the storage facility.

To pick up our moving truck. With a grand total of one and a half hours to spare before I needed to go to the airport.

I was dressed up as usual of course, and had fixed quite presentable victory rolls in my hair.

Ha ha..not for long.

I have no idea how we did it but we managed to move the entire room into a storage container, and I managed to not crash the truck.

It felt strangely right driving in my vintage gear and it got me to thinking about the war effort and how women must have felt having to do boy stuff, like driving trucks and fixing things.

My nana worked for the war effort making bombs.

The Kodak factory in London was made into a bomb factory. My mum says that Nana told her she found it scary because of the air raids. When the siren went off they had to stay in the factory until the bombers were directly overhead and then they could go to the air raid shelter, as they had to keep working. They had to walk home during the blitz and one of the girls fainted every time the siren went off because her whole family and street had been wiped out by a bomb.

Nana was a maid previously so she had some experience of working, but Im sure lots of women had not.

This is a lovely shot of her and her colleagues clowning around during a break.

They still managed to look glamorous!

Speaking of glamorous, I then raced to the airport, redid my hair and lippy in the loo and then I was ready to board the plane.

Now im in Auckland with my parents and having trawled through Mums photos to find these ones of Nana I am all inspired to write some more about her and her interesting life.

So stayed tuned for more.

"Travel light"..yeah right

2009-12-16T20:10:00.004+13:00

Tommorow I go on holiday to my parents for 3 weeks.

This is fantastic and I cant wait, but i have luggage worries.

As I have said before i have a 13 year old, and this 13 year old wants to take his snowboard and his electric guitar / amp. Air New Zealand is going to do well out of us tommorrow with the excess baggage charges.

I however have had great fun packing my bags.

I sorted out all my summery vintage stuff and matched it all with belts, shoes and headscarves. i have never in my life taken so many shoes away with me, but if i am going to do the blog project properly I am going to have to have the right accessories.

My mum is dreading the new look, she thinks everyone in our little country town is going to point and stare. Which they probably will, but I am such an exhibionist that just encourages me!

Because I have been working till now i have only really been able to wear my suits and fancy stuff, but now I can try the beach pin up look.

I even bought myself some 50's repro togs ( thats swimsuits to all you non kiwis) so stay posted for some beachy pics.

The best part of packing was putting all my makeup into my new vintage makeup case.

That really made me feel like a proper lady. I am going to take it on as carry on so I get to walk around with it looking fancy.

Now just one issue remains...

How am I going to take my sunhat without it getting squished??

SOLD.. to the lady in the red lipstick

2009-12-15T17:55:00.004+13:00

Auctions, you gotta love em.
If you havent tried them then you must, must ,must.
Our local one is Dunbar Sloane in central Wellington and it is quite consistently fantastic.
I am one of many regulars and it turns into quite a social occasion!
Today was the best treasure hunting day ever.
I am dedicating todays blog to showing off my new found stuff.
Firstly you will see on your right (sorry about the appalling picture, its an automatic timer one and i live in a garage hence the sari's everywhere!) the buy of the century.
This little beauty is a 1940's jacket (John Howard, Mayfair, London) complete with shoulder pads. Take a guess as to how much i paid for this and the rest of the stuff i found in the box?
$10 NZ - that $5 us or 3.33 pounds!!
Noone else bidded on it.

Crazyness, who would chuck such a thing into an old box with a load of old junk and almost give it away at an auction?

Anyways.. also in the box was this:

I have no idea what era this is from. It is cotton and looks pretty old. Any ideas people? I may ask the experts over at Fedora lounge.

The other box I grabbed - for a mere $30 was an amazing box full of old sewing stuff, wooden cotton reels from tailors, pinking shears, buttons, strange cardboard puzzles, and packets and packets of needles

But within this magic box I spied a little velvet bag with gold beads. I just had a feeling that there was something special hidden inside. So I undid it very carefully and revealed....

Still sealed, label still sparkling like the day it was made. Which incidentally was 1951.

Now i have a dilemma. Its christmas and I have no money. What little money I did have I blew on treasure hunting! I know this little beauty is probably worth a hundred bucks or so.Do I sell it? Or keep it on my dressing table, unopened for posterity.

AARRGGH this is the trouble with auction buying. Ineveitably you have to weigh up do I sell on or do I treasure forever. i would make a crappy trader!

Lastly, a question for the vintage girls, I found loads of these hair pins. Please tell me what they were used for and how i would use them today.
I have a few extra packets that I dont need so if anyone wants one just let me know and they are yours.

Max Factor says....

2009-12-14T20:30:00.004+13:00

"Make up won't conceal laziness"

Listen up girls...

"Even the most beautifully made up face cant be expected to overcome the obstacle to beauty offered by obesity, the sagging flabbiness of muscles, a carelessly dejected posture ( I wonder if I have one of those) or untidiness of costume, manicure (I definitley fail there) or hair-do"

Mr Factor was a bit of a straight talker, I dont know if he would have gotten away with it today. Screen parade magazine was willing to print it but I dont know if womans day would be.

We have changed our values a wee bit nowadays I think.

Manicures and posture are not very high on the modern womans priority list, and here in New Zealand you dont even see many beautifully made up faces.

This has been on my mind throughout this project. Now Im not going all out with the foundation and false eyelashes every day but i am making a LOT more effort with my appearance than previously. One of my objectives is to see how this effects my life, good or bad and see how much influence it will have on the future image I will portray to the world.

Max goes on.. "Untidiness in grooming is purely a consequence to a lazy unwillingness to exert even the little amount of effort which neatness requires".

I never realised how lazy I was with my appearance, and Im not saying that it is necessarily a good use of time, but I HAVE noticed that I have had a very big jump in self esteem and confidence this month. Whether I am willing to continue using my time in hair styling and lip stick applying after this month we shall see, but I cant deny the benefits so far.

We shall not talk about flabby muscles however, I cannot see ANY extra effort being exerted in that area either now OR in the future.

"What it amounts to is this: The woman to whom the accusation of laziness is applicable must sometime decide, if she hasnt already, whether she values an extreme degree of easy,lazy non-activity, more than she does a full realisation upon the powers of beauty and glamour contained within her"

Cor.... can i have some of that powerful beauty and glamour Mr Factor?????

How did I do today?

Never to young to learn how to be a lady

2009-12-13T21:50:00.008+13:00

I have a son.

He is a wonderful, fantastic, talented, well behaved young man whom i absolutely adore.

But he wont let me play with his hair or dress him up.

So imagine my delight when was asked by a young lady if i would visit her and her sisters and spend an afternoon teaching them to curl their hair. Just when i thought things couldnt get any better i discovered:

THEY HAVE A DRESSING UP BOX!!!!

I have been collecting clothes since I was a teenager for the time that I can make my own dressing up box, but theirs is way cooler than mine would ever be.
Of course I had to rummage through and choose something to wear for our afternoon of preening:

Pink bed jacket.... perfect.

So all three girls were taught the fine art of hot rollers. They were very fast learners.

Its not only fifties ladies that need curls in their hair, Flower fairies do as well.

Then all three got to try out their new found skills on me.

After everyone was curled they all got dressed up for a photo by the christmas tree.

I think you have to agree that they all look rather lovely

Marshida really got into the spirit with her to die for fifties green wool dress, Tamina wore a lovely blue sparkly number and Emira was the prettiest fairy Wellington has ever seen.

Thank you girls for a wonderful afternoon.

xxxxx

Running away to join the circus..

2009-12-13T02:53:00.004+13:00

Its 3am.

But for the sake of the project I will document tonights activities.

Its quite a monumental event because this is the first time I have gone out at night this month.

I decided to go all Betty Page but had a few second thoughts just before I left the house when I realised I bore a strong resemblance to Minnie Mouse.

I found the hair on a "you tube" tutorial and I have fallen in love with it. The girl on the video says be careful because boys love it.

She was right.

I cant remember when I last got so many lovely comments.

The occasion was a Burlesque Circus Club Night by http://www.fusecircus.co.nz/ I love burlesque so jumped at the chance of getting all dressed up - it begs for it really. I did get asked if I was in the show, Im pretty sure that was a compliment.

It was a great show, I thought maybe the burlesque girls needed to be a little more dressed to start with, they were all walking round in their undies all night, kind of spoiled the suprise. There were very hot boys doing swingy things on ropes and poles and it was quite sexual and edgy - very cool.

It was at a gay bar, so Luke and I had to determine whether the object of my flirtation was gay or straight ( so I didnt make any embarrassing eye contact faux pas). So Luke just waltzed on up and asked him! Well that was something I had never thought of before! The poor boy then thought that Luke fancied him so felt like he was letting him down. Im not sure that did much for my chances to be honest.

I just lolled around trying to look pretty.

I am USELESS at this sort of thing.

Luke was disgusted at my inaction.

After completely failing to get the boy to ask me out ( even though Im pretty sure he wanted to) I had lots of fun pulling out my pin up moves and Betty Page faces. The gay boys at the bar all told me i was beautiful so i felt a little redeemed.

And the best thing is - I can dress up again tommorrow - Loving this project!

Busyness and the art of whinging

2009-12-12T00:04:00.003+13:00

Its midnight Friday and i am only just getting to write my blog.
My day went something like this..
Get up, struggle to find anything clean or respectable to wear.
Prepare for and teach meditation class, have cups of tea with the students.
Catch the bus to town to buy birthday presents for a set of twins birthday this weekend. In the process of this have a very interesting conversation about birds with a maths teacher working in a bookshop.
Get back home with just enough time to spare to prepare for teaching 3 under 12's about the true nature of their mind. This was a fascinating experience - they debated for over 30 minutes whether thoughts were formless. And to think i was worried about how to "dumb down" the class.
I then had to meet my friend, get DVDS (we had a date with "The notorious Betty Page" DVD)pick up the teens, feed them and argue with them about who had the best DVD - you see I couldnt argue with their choice of semi nudity of teenage girls in "Euro trip" when i was about to watch a movie about the worlds most famous bondage girl.
So.. the point of this little whinge about my busy life is that I cheated a little on the vintage front. BUT I thought for days like this I would focus on accessories.
Is that ok?
In most of my pics you dont get to see my accessories and I have spent a while amassing a bit of a collection.
So here are todays offerings.

My horrendously uncomfortable selby shoes and my cute raffia handbag picked up at the local auction a few weeks ago. I think I will do a bit of research on "Selby" as i have a few pairs now.

As for my busy life, I only have myself to blame - It was my decision to fit in blog writing and endless preening. And as my teacher kindly points out - its not exactly going to get me enlightened.

But tommorrow is another day, and it is a day that will include a burlesque circus show. mmmm.. now THAT will leave me in a morally compromising position if my teen ever frequents a strip show.

Allo Allo

2009-12-10T18:28:00.001+13:00

Hurrah - wet day today.

That meant i could wear my "70's does the 40's" outfit that I have been looking forward to.

You cant quite see the awesome green dress under the coat, but it is pretty special.

And its topped off with the super cute green 1940's beret -which is not actually a beret. So my beret expert friend Daan says.

I felt like a French resistance fighter all day long.

So i did some research on women in the resistance and found out about this amazing lady on http://www.nzedge.com/:

Nancy Gray was born in Roseneath, Wellington and moved to Australia as a small child.
In her teens she moved to Europe where she eventually met and married a rich handsome French Industrialist.

As World War Two began Nancy saw what the Nazis’ were doing to the people of Europe and started to become involved in the French Resistance movement.
Due to her wealth she was able to travel freely and became more and more involved in missions, including couriering messages and rescuing refugees.
She became so well known that the Gestapo had a price on her head and she was known as “The White Mouse” – due to her evasion of capture.
She was forced to escape France and leave her husband (who was eventually tortured and killed because he would not divulge her whereabouts). She was flown to England where she trained as a special operative and was parachuted back to France to coordinate resistance fighters and prepare for D-Day.
On one occasion Nancy cycled 500 km through several German checkpoints to replace codes her wireless operator had been forced to destroy in a German raid.
She has had a mini series made about her life and was scathing about some of the historical inaccuracies..

"The mini-series was well-acted but in parts it was extremely stupid. At one stage they had me cooking eggs and bacon to feed the men. For goodness sake did the Allies parachute me into France to fry eggs and bacon for the men? There wasn’t an egg to be had for love nor money, and even if there had been why would I be frying it when I had men to do that sort of thing?"

Nancy is now 93 and lives in a London Nursing home.

You cant always get what you want

2009-12-09T22:14:00.000+13:00

Well I cant anyway.

At the moment what I want is the perfect red lipstick.

I know i am not alone because there is a whole thread on "the fedora lounge" about this elusive creature. However i feel as a kiwi girl i am a little more hard done by than the rest of the world for the mere fact that we live in New Zealand.

Yes we have waterfalls, amazing mountains, great coffee and flight of the conchords.... BUT WE DONT HAVE SEPHORA.

I hear people talking about Besame and Julie somebody or other but we are stuck with revlon and Mac ( actually we do have Nars and Napoleon but whinging is better copy).

Now i think the perfect red is pretty close to this one on Allie here.

However on me it would probably look orange!

I want a nice brick red - not too bright and showy.

Now Buddha said that if your wishes arent being fulfilled Its because you prevented someone elses wishes being fulfilled previously. So this got me thinking about how come I cant for the life of me find the perfect lippy. Maybe my last life was in the fifities and i kept stealing my best friends favourite lipstick. Or maybe I was a dog and ate my owners best shade. Or maybe i was a pilot in the war and bombed a lipstick factory.

Anyway i dont have it too bad I guess. i have a few shades that i just mix together and it comes out ok i guess.

At least we ARENT in the war. i found this little excerpt from "Dorothy" on

"Growing up in New Zealand 1925-50"

Each person was allowed 26 coupons for clothing every six months, with set numbers of coupons for particular items of clothing. A full length coat, usually of wool gabardine or herringbone tweed, took twelve coupons, a gym frock four, a blouse four. The coupons also had to be used for household linen.

What about knickers? How many coupons were they i wonder? You would have to get together and do swap meets wouldnt you (not for Knickers - i mean for dresses etc)

Women were issued a special page of coupons for one pair of fully fashioned silk stockings every six months. Runs in these were common and regarded as a disaster. They had to be mended by hand or taken to one of shops in the city where a young woman repaired ladder in silk stockings using a special stand and hook.

Well thats me sunk right there, I have never even lasted one week without holes in my stockings. i would have been known as that hussy who always has bare legs.

Speaking of stockings - listen up kiwi girls..

I found a supplier of Nude and black seamed hold ups! Yay! look on trade me - under the seller "Rockabillygals". They are $15 a pair and $15 post, but she lets you order more than one at a time.

You heard it here first.

Well you cant always get what you want, but if you try sometime you might just find.. You get what you need.

In my case today was the best Chocolate Caramel Slice in the world - from the New Dowse cafe.

See you tommorrow

Love sick

2009-12-08T16:33:00.000+13:00

Hi all

Today I was sick and off work.

Spent the morning in bed but then had to run some errands in the village. Now my friend Daan has spotted me twice cheating in my hoody so i thought Id better make an effort, as would have a proper lady. So I threw up the front of my hair in a terrible victory roll and tried out a head scarf. I have been wanting an excuse to wear one for ages.

Had to of course do the obligatory eyeliner and lippy thing too- felt a bit silly as i was just going to the drycleaners!

Those headscarves are a bit uncomfortable to be honest, im not sure I like something tied under my chin!

So as I have nothing exciting to report as spend the day mostly inside four walls, i thought i would share this lovely little story i found on http://www.stuff.co.nz/ .

Charles and Doris Bailey ( Dot and Bert) met through a mutual friend and married in 1940.

They both had very interesting lives - she represented New Zealand in cricket and worked fulltime and he cooked, ironed and darned socks.

"Mrs Bailey, 92, was described as feisty and fearless, Mr Bailey, 97, as calm, measured and a perfect gentlemen."

They were married for 69 years. (crikey ive never lasted more than 69 weeks!)

Then on November the 30th Dot died. 10 minutes later an ambulance was called for Bert and he was admitted to hospital.

He couldnt live without his Dot and died just 4 days after her.

His daughter says that he died as he lived - with very little fuss, making it easy for everyone.

I think thats lovely.

True love never dies.

Pin up? or put down?

2009-12-07T21:25:00.000+13:00

I am Buddhist.

So i spend a lot of time looking into my mind. And a lot of time going "How the heck did THAT get inside there???

So I am starting to get a sneaky suspicion that this little experiment may be slyly encouraging the bits of me that Im not too proud of to take over the mother ship, as it were.

What do i mean?

Well, I got a not so positive reaction to the project today - well in fact its the second not so positive reaction from the same person.

And what did my mind do?

NNNOOOOOOOOO IM GORGEOUS - HOW DARE YOU.

Oh dear.

I have had so many lovely comments that my ego has decided that its a bit bigger now, and just isnt able to cope with anyone bringing it back down to size.

and THEN ,as I was contemplating the horrible thought that i may be turning into an egomaniac I also realised that I am more than a tiny bit vain.

It was right at this moment actually...

There i was in the bathroom at work taking a photo of myself to show to the world (as you do) and in walked a consultant psychiatrist. Luckily she is a stylish consultant psychiatrist, but thats not the point.

But you know what, for the sake of science, I am going to accept that yes, at the moment I am a little more self aware, and yes maybe my ego is a little out of control and I am going to soldier on trying to look gorgeous... For the WHOLE worlds sake.... (mother..ship...not..in..my...controoollll)

But Im sure you would all agree, living the 50's lifestyle does take a lot of grooming and preening and dare i say it... Looking in the mirror.

What do you all think? Do you think it was all for the husbands benefit? Or to keep up with the Jones? Or do you think that maybe women of the 50's were shall we say.. more aware of their attractiveness.

Let me know.

Satans guide to parenting

2009-12-06T20:59:00.000+13:00

Today I am not going to post anything about myself as I was a dismal failure on the glamour front, not even mustering the effort to apply makeup.

I had a few parenting issues - minor thank goodness, but it got me thinking about teens in the 50's.

What was their buzz?

What did their parents worry about?

What parenting advice was standard?

So I googled all of the above and discovered that their poor parents had a lot of concerns about them, looking back probably very unfounded, but in the day they would have been having kittens on a regular basis.

Why? MUSIC...

The background of why music was such a worry is as follows:

The parents of teens in the 50's had had a really hard time of it, with the wars and the great depression. When THEY were teens (actually the word didnt exist until the 50's) the boys got a job and the girls found a bloke. They wouldnt have dreamt of anything else.

When they had kids they wanted something better for them, they valued family and fun and consequently let their teens go a little crazy - gave them free time and allowances and the like.

So what did the kids do with their time and money?

Listened to and bought music. Different music to their parents of course (good old individuating and all that).

Music companies loved this and plied them with more and more.

The parents were awfully worried that satan had something to do with all this and that their children would be morally damaged - what with all that hip gyrating.

And ya know? They might have had a point.

look how innocent they all looked back then..

And look at them now....

Im just saying...

Anyway, what did these parents do about parenting these teen rebels with a cause?

They turned to Dr Spock. He advocated lots of love and letting kids think for themselves.

Sounds familiar, that must have been the beginning of the parenting advice we are given today.

Actually its advice i tried today (from my favourite book - "of course i love you now go to your room").

It works like a dream, happy kid, happy mum.

I felt like a model parent today, but as my son is in a band i guess by 50's standards I would have failed.

Bloody Satan.

Shopping addict? Not me....

2009-12-05T22:27:00.000+13:00

Today was a big one.

Lunch with a friend who then accompanied me shopping. Big mistake because Luke is as big a shopper as me, and neither of us actually have any real money.

There was a market on at mighty mighty - the coolest bar in town and I hit pay dirt for 50's gear. I have basically doubled my wardrobe!

Strangely enough it was a day when i got randomly given stuff also. The lady in the dry cleaners gave me her mothers beautiful glove set and my friend who sells berets (see my website list below if you need a beret BTW) gave me a truly gorgeous green felt hat from the 40's. Which strengthened my shopping resolve as I needed to buy things to match these accessories.

It all makes sense in my head.

It was also the first summer day we have had in this freezing town, so i dressed up in my blue summer dress. I later helpfully found a matching blue hat.

We had so much fun - Luke is my clothes horse, we were looking for an outfit for him to wear to a burlesque event next week, and look what we found..

So all in all it was a successful day - for the credit card companies and every vintage shop in town. But at least i wont have to wear the same thing every day now.

And to finish it all off i landed up with 3 teenagers who got me to dye their hair red. So its now 10.39 and i have three redheads who have only just had dinner and are demanding the laptop to watch a truly crappy DVD. Wish me luck.

thats my boy on the left.

Housework and Hot Rollers

2009-12-04T20:28:00.000+13:00

Today was housework day.

Usually boring and mundane - but NOT today.....

Because i was 50's housewife.

First though I had to get up and figure what the heck to do with my hair - lazy last night and didnt curl. But worse than that - what would i wear to teach the meditation classes today??

Has to be not too risque and I have to be able to cross my legs.

So i chose a slightly cheating pair of black pants with my pink lacey top and cardy.
Not too kitsch. I didnt want to scare the children.

So I decide to crank up the hot rollers. Inspired decision if i do say so myself. I watched Lisa FS's you tube tutorial and found a cool pin up style.

Crikey those hot rollers are great- and they feel so comforting, all warm and cosy on your head

That was ok - felt like Mrs Beeton somewhat. But THEN, when i took them out and made myself up.... Thats when i realised that those 50's chicks had it right.

Doing my housework looking like this...

Now THAT was fun!! Except I spent more time looking at myself in the mirror and practising pin up poses than I did cleaning the bath.

Merry Vintage Christmas...

2009-12-03T18:32:00.000+13:00

This my entry for the "Vintage Christmas" Competition run by Super Kawaii mama.

Check out her cool blog too (does that win me more points??)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“A Vintage Christmas” starts, of course
when I write to Santa Claus

If he listens to my wish
The day will go something like this….

I open my eyes, to my delight
Santa has been throughout the night
The children find their treasure trove
While I roast turkey at the stove

With “santa baby” playing soft
We eat our fill and drink a lot
Then to the beach in blazing sun
The adults crawl and children run

That night with happy children kissed
I await the final thing on my list…

This post comes to you with the help of...

Chris Norris - as Santa Claus

Valerie Faulkner - as photographer

and Lindy as chief prop gatherer and artistic director.

Thanks guys xxxx

2009-12-02T22:30:00.001+13:00

Finally I think I got my hair EXACTLY how I wanted it today!
This is no mean feat, let me tell you.
For the vintage unitiated’s benefit, to get an authentic 40’s or 50’s hairstyle you need to set your hair every day. Either by sleeping in curlers, or in a hot set in the morning. As i am not a morning person the former is my only option for weekdays. So every second night I look like this...

Thank goodness I dont have a boyfriend.
Anyways.. after you get up you take out the curlers, which for me feels like xmas, and brush it all out to style the way you want. I wish i knew this step when i was a teenager. I remember trying to set my hair and when it came out frizzy, panicking and washing it out. So i got a bad eighties perm instead. I could have saved myself all the bad photos and been looking cool all these years. Its also useful to get a proper 40’s cut – mine is “the middy” which has layers in all the right places to curl up all pretty.
Its fun to get a photo you want to emulate – this was mine today... i got it pretty close!!

Try and figure out how the curlers were put in to make the curls go that way, then try it out. I seriously thought until just a couple of months ago that everyone in the 50’s must have had curly hair. Thank you Fedora lounge for putting me straight.
I am just learning all this stuff, there is so much girliness I never knew existed. There are many girls that have done this a long time and are so great at it, for example C-Dot over on my followers list. One of my favourite activities is checking out Lisa Freemont St’s you-tube tutorials . That girl can do vintage hair whichever way you can possibly imagine.
I am really looking forward to having fun with my hair this month – I will really let loose when i finish work on the 17th – I will have oodles of play time.
Right now i have to go research my hair style for tommorrow. All in the name of 24/7 vintage.

Tears and tights

2009-12-01T22:23:00.000+13:00

Crikey, as per usual my day was extreme to say the least. But adding the vintage dimension was both a pleasant distraction, and a frustrating time consumer.

But dear readers, i am still new to the whole getting ready in the morning business and Im sure i will end up being on time for work at least once before the end of the experiment. ( I hope my boss isnt reading this!)

After coaxing and threatening my hair into some semblance of victory rolls - I pulled on my brand new seamed tights and put a hole in them.

I know 1940's ladies wouldnt be seen dead in holey tights but I WOULD be dead if i didnt get on my bus so I just had to make do. It did spoil the whole effect somewhat.

So my outfit -as seen above comprised of my new super cool 40's cotton and lace blouse, I truly love this item, bought it and another on "trade me" (kiwi ebay) for $25 NZ. bargain.

It is the finest cotton and feels so lovely.

Also my vintage inspired pencil skirt and my new old red shoes.

Unfortunaltely i discovered they are a bit too small and limped for the rest of the day.

I looked good doing it though.

I work in a courthouse so i get to dress up to the max! I had a very sad case today and had a bit of a cry - thanking my lucky stars i wasnt really in the 40's with no waterproof mascara.

After a bit of a flirt with a handsome reporter - in my hot red lippy, trying to hide my holey tights, I limped home.

You will all be pleased to know that i found my old brown dress and newly aquired green cardy very very comfy for after work wear.

So all in all a relatively successful day on the total immersion front, but now i have to sleep in my flimsy nightie - Its freezing Wellington people!

And here is a pic of me about to hit my son on the head with a saucepan for not doing his paper run.... Oops, no thats right- I am about to cook dinner. Sans apron... must buy 50's apron..

Parting is such sweet sorrow

2009-11-30T22:25:00.000+13:00

So this is it, my last night in modernity.

I have been having mild panics all day.. i dont have enough clothes, i am going to freeze, i dont have enough time in the mornings to do my hair, on and on it goes.

I got home from work tonight and threw on my comfy, loungy clothes, because I still can. I have begun to realise how reliant on comfort i am, and how it really is just a reduction of previous suffering. you know what i mean, tight skirt, heels all day, come home and put on your trackies and no bra.. AAHHHH

But what will I do with no trackies? Which brings me to my greatest comfort. My old faithful hoody. We saw each other across a crowded shop one day in deepest darkest winter and i havent passed a day without him since. Bar a few wash days, granted.

I pull up the hood and retreat into my own Claire world, white and fluffy.

If i am going to cheat this month it will be with this baby.

I am in dire need of vintage comfy clothes, It will have to be cardigans and capris I think. But I would love to find some really naff 50's trousers

So tommorrow i start my science experiment. But for now I am going to snuggle into bed in my 2010 PJ's.

Night Night

The preparation has begun in earnest

2009-11-28T19:39:00.000+13:00

The decision has been made... I will begin my 27/7 vintage adventure on the 1st December.

This done, and my blog prepared means that now I have to take a long hard look at my wardrobe.

Of course, anyone that knows me realises that this is just an excuse for a shopping trip, and i will not deny that this is one of the key reasons for the project.

Today i found a nightie - very important if i am going to look styley with curlers in my hair, a pair of suede red shoes and the most amazing little yellow hat. Only trouble is that the little yellow hat matches nothing that i own. No suprises there.. half of my wardrobe doesnt match anything else i own.

I have been experimenting with my hair now for a number of weeks and am confident that i can pull off authentic styles of the 40's and 50's. Why did noone tell me about 40's victory rolls before? This is a style i can rock whatever the occasion, however at the moment it takes me 40 mins to put my hair up. With the help of You tube (especially "Lisa freemont street") I am optimistic i can get it down to 10 mins and only throwing the hairbrush across the room a couple of times.