Sunday, November 25, 2012

Treasure Hunt Weekend

It's Monday and another great weekend has been and gone. I'm sure a lot of you are having "Mondayitis" with returning to work but for me, as a stay at home mum it is just another day. But I do love to spend the day reflecting on what happened with the weekend.

I am a big fan of supporting small and local communities and try to attend as many family events as I can so on Saturday the family and I drove 45min to a little town called Binningup for their Spring Festival. It was a sponsored event so entry was free, entertainment was free and all the kids rides were free and all of the stalls were raising money for different projects in the community. George (my 2 year old) had a blast! He could of stayed on the Lions Club train all day long and I do get a lot of joy out of watching him have a great time but what i love most about these events are the stalls and the search for buried treasure!

About one third of the stalls were second hand items and majority of the time these stallholders just want to clear the "junk" from their houses so the prices are extremely low. I only managed to find one vintage item that I was interested in and it was on the Lions Club stall.

I'm not sure on the age of this pattern book but I would say 50's. The lady at the stall only wanted 20c but since it was for a good cause I gave her $1. I love the bag patterns that are in there and I'm tempted to make some bath mats.

While my husband was buying my son a pinwheel I spotted this cute as mint tin with Rosie The Riveter on it! I was so excited haha The lady selling them had no idea what I was on about and frankly neither did my husband but I love it and it will always be in my purse from now on.


And how cute is this little hat hairclip I found! Cant go wrong for $5.....I love markets!


                                           

After the Spring Festival we headed into Bunbury for some Christmas shopping and I thought I would have a quick visit to the op shops there. Although I did not find any vintage items I did find this vintage look dress, it is missing a couple of buttons but I'm sure I can find some to match somewhere. This dress cost me $5 and fits perfect. 


                                                       

All in all a great day! What did you get up to this weekend?

Monday, November 19, 2012

A Revelation!

The wonderful Miss Beccie Bombshell recently brought a great blog post to my attention. It is called What Makes Us Vintage Girls? and is part of The Musings And Adventures Of A Pinup Mama. This post really struck a chord with me, I have been trying to figure out where I fit in in the world of pinup. Am I Rockabilly? Am I vintage? Am I pinup? What am I? There are so many different takes on the vintage style and I was so focused on which category exactly i want to be and it was kind of starting to stress me out. I felt as though I needed to decide there and than what I was trying to achieve and than to go all out with it but after reading what Bunny had to say I instantly relaxed. 

Bunny delves into what it really is that makes us "vintage". Is it the amount of vintage clothes we own, the crafts we do or the hairstyles we master? We can ponder all day the different aspects there are in being a vintage girl but in the end it is what you want it to be. You need to sit down and think about what you truly want out of your vintage look/lifestyle. There is no need to take up knitting, bake the perfect sponge or spend hundreds on the perfect vintage gown. Not everyone back in the 50's could knit and I know for a fact that my mum was notorious for burning food and lets face facts many people were still recovering from the war, trying to make a living from the land and could not afford extravagant gowns. We need to be true to ourselves and our image, we are individual and need to concentrate on our own look. So where does that leave me?

Funnily enough I do my best thinking when I am at Zumba. I get into the music, the moves and my mind clears. So last night at Zumba I had my mind set on what I wanted from my new look, which brings me to why did I begin this in the first place? My answer to that is my mum.

My mum is the lovely lady on the left with her sister-in-law.
 
My mum was born in 1939 and married in 1960 so I truly believe that the 1950's were the years that shaped her into the woman she became and she was just so lovely. She passed away in March 2012 and it is only now 8 months later that I have been thinking about her past and where she came from. So I am embarking on this venture in her honour and because I really do love the look! Women knew how to dress back than, the outfits flattered their body's and they always looked stunning, so they must of known the secret to true beauty!
 
At this stage I am going to be looking into traditional vintage clothing and traditional hairstyles with maybe a modern pinup style here and there. Once I begin collecting the items I am after I will be recreating the looks my mum had. I have many photos to look over. I am just going to take it as it comes and see what I like, I'm not going to commit to one set look and I'm not going to let other peoples style bring me down, I am beautiful in my own way and my own style. I have always disappeared into the background and it is now time to be brave and stand out.
 
Oh and before you start doing the maths my mum was 48 when I was born...... I am a "change of life" baby and proud of 

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Doing What Comes Naturally

What is your natural talent? Have you discovered one yet? If you are sitting there thinking that you have no natural talents please believe me when I say you most definitely have a talent, you just have not discovered or acknowledged it yet. Up until this time last year I thought that I had no talent, sure I had done ballroom dancing and was quite good but it was always hard work and a talent that needed to be worked on. Yes I believe you can gain talent and can learn to do anything you want but I'm interested in natural talents that for some reason you just have. I discovered mine last year when I joined the local craft group, I was the youngest by about 30 years (I am not over exaggerating!) which did not bother me as I have always gotten along better with older women and I decided to learn how to crochet. One month later I was making and selling crochet items! It was the first thing I had ever experienced a natural talent for, I found it so easy and as I complete projects I was surprising myself with my abilities. I had no idea I was capable of such things.

My first ever crochet project, a baby blanket


I moved onto baby hats
 
Toys soon followed
Baby clothes

And my greatest achievement to date! This one may freak you out a little but I love it.I made this for my doula as a present for being absolutely amazing with my VBAC journey. This was the project that really made me realise that I had a natural talent. I was asking my friends what I should make next after I finished my baby blanket and some baby clothes and my doula sent me a picture of a birthing doll and said that if she could crochet she would make this. I looked at it and laughed, there was no way I would ever be able to make that, but I was bored one day and just began following the pattern...... 3 weeks later "Bertha" was completed. She actually gives birth complete with baby and placenta :) My doula loves absolutely loves her!
 
I am currently working on a blanket just to use up some excess yarn and hopefully next year I will be attempting to crochet a 1950's style dress! Cannot wait!