Mint and Lace

Lookie!  I'm a good girl and have my Friday post out on time!  This is thanks in part to having a free evening the other night after work where I could put the photos up awhile and then just throw in some words at another time.  Lately I've been either doing something every evening after work or I'm too exhausted to want to do much besides lounge on the couch watching some telly.  Also, my weekends have been pretty booked between friends and reenactments.

So not as much time for blogging.  Which I find rather ironic.  Now that I actually have a semblance of a life and am doing things, I don't have the time and/or energy to post about them.  I mean, jeepers, I haven't even posted photos from Reading's WWII Weekend and that was in June!

These photos were taken by the local creek that runs through my town.  I was running errands this day and didn't want to have to drive out of the way to go to my usual spot.  It's a pretty location but the shading from the trees combined with the time of day made for some dim photos.

Outfit Details:

vintage top, vintage collar {Grandma Ruth}

vintage Ferragamo shoes, belt, skirt, handbag {thrifted}

hair comb {eBay}

You can tell by my hair that these photos were taken shortly before The Great Gatsby came out.  I was still experimenting with different methods to achieve nice looking finger waves.  This was not the best of attempts, by far.  But I eventually got better at it and they turned out rather well for the actual day of my Gatsby photoshoot I did before seeing the film.

I've already started editing photos for Sunday's Instagram post, so hopefully it will actually come out this week and on time!  The horror!

Wishing you a wonderful weekend.

My (Past Three) Week(s) According to Instagram

I know, I know...  I was doing so good for a week there with blogging and then I let it all go to pot again.

My weeks and weekends have been much busier of late.  I ended up getting a temp job so now my weekdays are filled with work.  Since my back still hurts and I'm not used to waking up so early yet, it's taken awhile for me to adjust.  I haven't been posting as many Instagram daily outfits either because it's rather dirty where I'm working and I don't want my pretty vintage items to get grease stains and the like on them.

My weekends have been filled with either reenactments, hanging out with friends, or both.  The past two weekends I went to two different reenactments.  One at Joanna Furnace and one at Eckley's Miners' Village.  They both had dances in the evening which were great fun.  I still have no idea what I'm doing, but if I have a strong lead, I can go with the flow rather well.

1. My outfit two Sundays ago.

2. First time wearing this vintage dress and hat.

3. No outfit photoshoots lately due to the heat, but mum took a quick snap.

4. Beat the heat with a Mike's hard lemonade at a baseball game.

5. TARDIS pyjamas! Need I say more?

6. Two Mondays ago's outfit. Another new (to me) vintage dress.

7. First time wearing this hat as well.

8. Out to the cinema to see This Is the End. I love this 50s frock.

9. Too hot to care; thus entered the mint sailor shorts.

10. My new favourite cocktail at Applebees: frozen strawberry lemonade with rum.

11. Beautiful Benedict celebrated his 37th birthday on 19 July.

12. No holiday for me this year. But hopefully a beach trip to do a vintage swimsuit shoot at least...

13. Randomly dreamed of Jonathan Scott from Property Brothers.

14. I certainly feel like a fool a lot of the time.

15-16. Outfit for WWII reenactment at Joanna Furnace.

17. A dreamy soldier.

18. I ended up buying a new (to me) vintage dress and changing into it.

19. And then I ended up ripping it whilst swing dancing later on.

20. A girl and her gun.

21. Two vintage baby dresses I couldn't pass up from Joanna Furnace.

22. Last Sunday's easy breezy outfit.

23. A woman from the Joanna Furnace event gave me these custom made 1940s crocodile shoes!

24. Picked some Queen Anne's lace that I love.

25. On the bridge in Mt. Gretna.

26. Joanna Furnace, Mike's, Willow, and Reading WWII Weekend.

27. Smudger loves to play with soda bottles.

28. Johnny Galecki- I can't get enough of The Big Bang Theory.

29. Saturday's outfit for another WWII reenactment at Eckley's Miners' Village.

30. Gorgeous wrought iron bench outside the Sharpe House.

31-32. At the Sharpe House.

33-34. Inside the Sharpe House.

35. A tank outside of where the USO dance was held.

36. Swinging the night away.

37-38. One does not simply come across Captain America and Wolverine masks without putting them on.
39. Smudger from two weeks old to three years old.
40. Took Smudger to get ice cream on his birthday.

41. One of my favourite photos from Reading's WWII Weekend.
42. I can't wait to swing dance again. I miss it.
43-44. Friday's outfit to see Swing Fever play.

45. Behind on responding to my penpals.
46. Saturday's 50s outfit to hear Flamin' Dick and the Hot Rods play.

This weekend I had more events going on.  Friday evening the band Swing Fever played a concert in the park which I attended.  I am addicted to hunting down all the local swing dance events.  I was a bit disappointed that no one was dancing, so I left after the first set.  It was mostly older people sitting around in their lawn chairs.  Not what I wanted.

Then come Saturday, I went to the Lebanon Fair.  My friend's cousin's band Flamin' Dick and the Hot Rods were performing 50s/60s rock and roll there.  Today has been a day of rest for me.  I'm not used to being this active plus working a job on top of it, all with stupid back pain/headaches to throw a wrench in the situation.

I'll try once again to be more proactive with this.  Hopefully once my body becomes more accustomed to the new hours and all I can get on a better schedule.  I hope you've all been doing well!

My Week According to Instagram

Another week has passed.  This week was a week for rekindling old friendships.  On Monday I met up with my friend Nikkoel who I hadn't seen since graduation in 2004.  We did a Great Gatsby photoshoot before we went and saw the film.  It was really a lot of fun teaming up with someone to take photos.

Wednesday night I got to see my friend Amanda who I know from beauty school and working at the same salon together.  We met up in Lebanon to see Star Trek Into Darkness.  The neat thing was that the cinema played the first Star Trek film beforehand to really get us in the mood for the new one.  I must just say that it was phenomenal and it was really nice seeing Benedict Cumberbatch in 3D and on that big of a screen.

 1. My finger waves turned out great just in time for Gatsby.

2. My mum and I when I was a wee lass.

3. Swooning over RDJ.

4. Last week's Instagram post.

 5-6. All dolled up for The Great Gatsby.

7. Nikkoel and I after seeing The Great Gatsby.

8. Woohoo!

9. Testing costumes for Star Trek Into Darkness.

10. Finally edited Gatsby photoshoot pictures.

11. Zoe Saldana was this week's Style Crush.

12. The final outfit for Star Trek.

13. Oh yes, that's a phaser.

14. The glorious Benedict Cumberbatch in Star Trek Into Darkness.

15. I wore a nightgown as a dress on Thursday.

16. The goodies I won in Nora's giveaway arrived!

17-18. Incredible deadstock vintage dresses my mum told me about.

19-20.Very springy in a lilac dress on Friday.

21-24. Some photos from the Gatsby shoot. The rest can be seen here.

25. Devoured (hehe) the first season of UK's Being Human. Can't wait to watch the rest.

26. Found this beautiful piece on Craig's List.

27. Welcome home, baby.

Yesterday I headed over to my mum's house to restore an old 1950s Formica table that she picked up for free on the side of the road.  I sanded the chipped paint off the legs and painted them a glossy black.  The chrome and top were in pretty good condition and just needed a bit of cleaning.  The table is going to serve as my new sewing station.

I also picked up a beautiful Waterfall wardrobe that I found on Craig's List.  I've wanted a matching one for my bedroom set for quite awhile.  After my current wardrobe's rod broke, I decided it was time to seriously into a replacement.  And voila!  A couple days after searching, I found a lovely one that nearly matches my current set perfectly.

Today was the car show which was a bit of an anti-climax.  The overcast clouds and on and off misting rain kept most of the really pretty vintage cars at home.  I was a bit disappointed because I really wanted to take outfit photos by them.  There was one nice Ford from 1940 that I got my photo with so that's good at least.

How was your weekend?

The Great Gatsby

I must warn you now, there will be an extreme photo overload happening.  My mum and I took the first set of photos on Sunday after church because I heard it was going to be a lot cooler the following day when I was going to see Gatsby.  I also wore eyeshadow during the first batch, trying to emulate the 1920s makeup.  Unfortunately, I didn't have black or grey to do a smokey eye and ended up having to use purples.  I didn't really care for the end result.

I also wore eyeshadow during the first batch, trying to emulate the 1920s makeup.  Unfortunately, I didn't have black or grey to do a smokey eye and ended up having to use purples.  I didn't really care for the end result.

I am so glad that I found this dress on eBay.  The red flapper dress I made was a bit scandalous length-wise.  I blame the fact that it was a pattern for a Halloween costume.  It's fine if that's what you're going for.  But I wanted something a bit more authentic to the period.  I wanted to look like I stepped out of the 20s and not like a generic Halloween flapper.

My finger waves for once turned out quite well, if I say so myself.  And just in time for going to see the film.

Now below is the second set of photos taken Monday, the day I saw Gatsby, at my usual location of the Conrad Weiser Homestead.  It was more chilly, as it was announced, so I donned my faux fur coat, which I thought went well with the 20s aesthetic.

I took these photos whilst waiting for my friend, Nikkoel to arrive.  I decided I wanted to take some solo at this spot and I also changed my eye makeup so I wanted new photos for that reason as well.  I really liked the way the photos turned out here by the door.  It's like a secret entrance with the way the plants have grown up.

I am my own worst critic when it comes to photos of myself.  But I am absolutely in love with the photo below.  I feel like it turned out so well and I look like a real flapper.  My only complaint would be the plant blocking the view of my legs a bit.

Nikkoel arrived and we had a lot of fun figuring out photos and poses.  It was a bit awkward at first since I've never really done that with another person.  My mum usually just snaps away to get poses and candid shots.  But this was different.  I had to stage two people, not just myself.  I like to pretend that we are walking up to Jay Gatsby's house for one of his wild parties.

It was really nice to have someone else to shoot ideas off of.  Nikkoel came up with the idea to lay across the bench like this.  It turned out really swell.  She had some great input.

My Outfit Details:

vintage 1970s does 1920s dress {eBay}

vintage 1920s hat {Maine}

vintage 1920s handbag {gift}

vintage gloves, vintage jewellery, vintage fur shrug {Grandma Charlotte & Grandma Ruth}

fishnet backseam stockings {k-mart}

heels {thrifted}

We unfortunately ran out of time for taking photos because we had to travel a bit to get to the cinema.  I really wish we could have taken more photos and gotten to other spots on the Homestead.  Hopefully there will be more photoshoots together in the future.  It was so nice to get together with someone else who appreciates past decades and likes to dress up.

I had an amazing day taking photos with Nikkoel and we really enjoyed the film as well.

Want to see what photos didn't make it onto the blog?  Head over to Facebook for a look.