Vintage Link Love for June 2015

Nope, no way, no how, we can't seriously have reached the halfway point in the year already. That seems borderline impossible, does it not? And yet, hard as it may to wrap our lovely minds around, that we have.

I generally like to save my summaries of the year and how it played out until the end - or at least a fair bit closer to it, so I'll refrain from such for now. But I will say that the first half of the year has been truly mixed bag of highs and lows, good and bad, stresses and points of joy.

It hasn't, for the most part, played out how I foresaw in the slightest (for example, we had no idea going into it or late -spring, for that matter, that Tony would be headed to the States for work all summer long). Sometimes that's a good thing, others not so much. It is what it is though and ultimately I okay with where the year is at so far.

I may be singing a different tune come six months from now, though I certainly hope not. I often find the second half of the year to better than the first and really do have my fingers crossed that such will be the case this time around.

Right now though, summer is out in full force (yippee!), there's more sunshine than you shake a beach umbrella at, and my birthday is less than two weeks away - plus I've been listing up a huge storm in my Etsy shop this month, with over 180 new vintage items landing on the virtual shelves there in June alone - so I'm a happy, very productive camper at the moment.

Today on Canada Day Eve (yes, that's a thing - in my books at least! :D), let's take a moment before we launch into July and enjoy some of the fascinating, informative, inspiring and just plain fun stories that have caught my eye in recent weeks. I hope that you guys find them to be every bit as engaging as I did!

♥ How to turn a t-shirt into a Bardot top: Gemma shows us a dead simple, no-sewing required way to take a run of the mill t-shirt and transform it into an alluring, arguably far lovelier, off-the-shoulder Bardot inspired top. Believe me, you'll never look at a ho-hum tee the same way again!


♥ Your Life On Earth So Far: Tony recently shared this interactive BBC website with me and suffice it to say, history and cool fact lover that I am, I was more than a little captivated by it. You impute your date of birth and then, presto, a whole slew of fascinating information regarding what has happened on earth so far in your life pops up. Love it!!!


♥ How the last American Civil War veterans lived, loved and died: Though I am a Canadian and have no strong family connections (that I'm aware of) to the Civil War, its multi-faceted history, widespread brutality, horrible loss of life, and the nation that emerged in its wake have always fascinated me, as have images like those in this great Mashable/Retronaut post highlighting the lives of some of the longest living veterans from this bloody US conflict.




♥ How a Makeup Mogul Liberated Women by Putting Them in a Pretty New Cage: This in-depth, rivetingly engaging post from Collector's Weekly delves into the life and work, social impact and lasting impressions of beauty industry pioneer, Helena Rubinstein, and will have you transfixed and fascinated from start to finish.


♥ 20 truths about being a full-time blogger: My neck practically hurt by the end of this spot on post from The Travel Hack from all the vigorous nodding in agreement I was doing (though I do differ from the author in some areas, such as that a far greater amount of my working time is taken up with writing posts than she says she spends on that area). Whether you're a professional or hobbyist blogger, if you're doing it on a full time level (and perhaps even a dedicated part-time one as well), chances are you'll be able to relate and nod alone, too - big time.


♥ I was given just 15 months to live: One of the most rewarding elements for me of blogging is the fact that it causes my path to cross with such a vast array of people around the world. Many are vintage lovers themselves, but not all are. Some discover my blog due to other topics that I've covered here before, such as places I've traveled to, genealogy research, or medical related posts.

In the case of the latter, I recently had the great pleasure and honour of getting to know a truly inspiring cancer survivor named Heather Von St. James (pictured below with her husband and daughter), who developed pleural mesothelioma and was given just a few months to live. Truly thankfully, Heather beat the odds (and they were stacked against here, big time) and is not only still with us a decade later, but going strong and helping others who affected by mesothelioma and cancer in general. I encourage you to visit her site, read her story, and be every bit as inspired as I was by this courageous woman and her indomitable spirit.




♥ The #1 reason why you never have anything to wear: From the popular mainstream fashion site Grit & Glamour comes this interesting look at what the author thinks in the top reason so many of stand in full of our bulging closets and bemoan that we have nothing to wear. Do you agree with this take on things?


♥ Pinup: The Movie: We're I a documentarian (a job that I would actually love to do beyond measure), I would definitely create a doc about the vintage world. I am not however, but thankfully Kathleen Ryan is and she's currently creating a film all about the history of pinup culture and its roll to this day in American society. Check out the exciting trailer for "Pinup: The Movie" (click on the link at the start of this entry) and then buzz on over to their Kickstarter page, if so desired, to help it become a full-on reality thanks to crowd sourced funding.


♥ How To DIY Your Own Vintage Hair Tie: From Bonita's beautiful blog Lavender & Twill comes this terrific, super easy tutorial for making your own (awesome!) vintage style hair ties, like the gem that she created that’s  pictured below.




♥ 10 Tips to Buy Vintage Online: This is a topic that I get a lot of questions about and which I've certainly chatted about before, but I haven't compiled my best tips in one super handy post yet, so I was thrilled when I saw that the always lovely Nora had done just that in this great entry. Her "in the know" post is a must for vintage newcomers and veterans alike.


♥ The 20 most influential fashion bloggers of 2015: Though, as touched on above, I wouldn't be one to sum things up quite yet for this year, plenty of blogs and websites already making lists lauding the best of the best for this year. This article from Fashionista.com does just that with mainstream fashion bloggers, and especially since I'm a vintage fashion blogger myself, I found it very interesting to see who made their cut and who was surprisingly absent from this roundup of wildly influential big names in the style blogging world.


♥ The Boyer Sister's New Album Has Dropped: Many of you may be familiar with the sweet, lovely, talented trio of young women called the Boyer Sisters (pictured below) who together run a great vintage lifestyle blog, but did you know that all three of them happen to be hugely talented and very accomplished musicians as well, whose brand new album - a toe tapping, gorgeously sung selection of classic, highly popular mid-century swing tunes - was just released this month? Now you do and now you can download it for yourself. Believe me, you'll want to - it's sensational!

{All images throughout the list of links above come by way of the post that they are displayed directly beneath the write up of here. Please follow the links provided to learn more about these images.}

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July promises, as this month usually is for me, to be a busy, exciting, action packed one, with plenty of work, but no shortage of fun as well.

Coming in as my second favourite month of the year, topped only by October (Canadian Thanksgiving! Our wedding anniversary! Halloween!), July is a glorious time of the year. It's awesomely warm - which I adore - and almost surreally beautiful. Sandwiched squarely in the middle of summer, it's a merry, blissful time that could happily last forever - or at least nearly so - if such were possible.

{Three massive cheers for July and all the beauty, radiance, and leisurely loveliness it houses. Vintage Vogue magazine cover image source.}

It is not however, so instead, let's all get out there and try to enjoy it to the very fully while it's still here. For as quickly as we have reached the halfway point of 2015, we'll be at the end of the year and up to our perfectly groomed eyebrows in snow and Christmas decorations again, which, I don't know about you, but I'm in no hurry to rush into (at all!).

To all my fellow Canucks, have a truly joyful Canada Day celebration tomorrow - and to one and all, I wish you a sun-kissed, sensationally lovely July from start to finish!