Links, Life, Love: June 4, 2016

Summer is approaching, fast and powerfully, its air a fragrant blend of thunder storms, honeysuckle, sandy shores, and the first locally grown tree ripened stone fruits in nearly a year. A lively month fills our days now and before we know it, the next season really and truly will be upon us.

Nearly two months have passed now since I launched a new periodically occurring post series called Links, Life, Love here and it seems, now that we're into June, like high time for the second installment of such.



Links:

Thoughts on Modern Vintage Style: I greatly enjoyed and appreciated Bonita's heartfelt look at this topic and how it relates to her own life and wardrobe. It's something that I think many of us will be nodding up a storm as we read and I really commend her on tackling this important vintage style related subject.


My Favourite Instagram Accounts for 1920s Style Inspiration: Searching for some of the best and most arrestingly chic jazz era fashion wearers to follow on Instagram? Look no further than this curated and entirely fantastic list that Jessica from Zella Maybe recent put together. Le swoon!


Spring & Summer Vintage Accessory Essentials: Bianca rounds up several of favourite must-have warm weather vintage accessories, from high heeled sandals to pretty parasols, and highlights them care of some seriously soon worthy yesteryear images in this fun spring + summer fashion post.


The Lifesaving Powers of Vintage Turbans: You'll want to run, not walk, to your scarf collection the moment you read this terrific piece from Nicole at The Artyologst, and then proceed to spend the whole summer sporting the most glamorous vintage style turbans imaginable.


Why I don’t like capsule wardrobes: Personally, I'm quite neutral when it comes to capsule wardrobes and have zero against them personally, but I did find this post on why its author, Christina Fleming, isn't a fan to be a thought provoking, interesting read.


Edwardian Pomade Recipe: Kate's super simple and very natural recipe - complete with a great how-to video - for such will have you running to the local health food or holistic related shop and then your kitchen in a heartbeat.


Flea Market 101: A Beginner’s Guide: Jackie of the always enjoyable blog, Let's Go Thrifting, dishes out some super handy, and very detailed advice, on what to know/do/take with you/expect when you go flea market shopping. This post is a great read for all outdoor second hand market fans, be they newbies, veterans, or anywhere in between.


A Man Took Hundreds of Photobooth Self-Portraits From Between the 1930s and 1960s. But No One Knows Who He Is and Why?: Tell me this doesn't intrigue you something fierce!


5 Keys for Mid-Century (Decor) Style: A quintet of fun, easy ways to inject more of the mid-century awesomeness we so adore into our home decor care of Sabrina over at the delightful blog, Inky Notions.




Life:

In many respects, I feel like I've already shared most of the highlights that have filled our days lately, including our wonderful little trip to the Kootenays, but that doesn't mean that other things haven't been happening behind the scenes, too.

Tony recently returned home from his latest work trip to the States, which saw him touch down for a few days in Denver, Colorado. Save for the airport there, he'd never been to Denver before and really enjoyed his time in this beautiful state, which geographically speaking, share many points (mountains! evergreen trees! vast expanses of wilderness!) in common with our own province of British Columbia.

Much as with Austin, Texas in April, he adored getting to explore more of America and is looking forward to wherever his company may opt to send him to next, be it in America, Canada, or even further afield.

And speaking of Tony, both he and I have birthday coming down the pipeline in the not-too-far-off future. Mine will roll into town on July 10th (I'll be 32) and his appears again on August 6th (he'll be 36). We've always adored that we're both "summer babies" and while we don't have any mega plans in the works for either day yet, are certainly looking forward to celebrating them together.






In fact, we're genuinely psyched to be spending the summer as a whole in one another's company, after being apart while he was in San Francisco (for work) for nearly the whole duration of last summer.

Though we both fared well during that time apart and stayed in constant contact online, it truly wasn't the same letting the most stunning, sunny and light filled (aka, prime outdoor photo taking season) chapter of the year go by without each other's companionship and we feel very fortunate to have this summer together again.

We're also excited about Canada Day on July 1st (it's one of only two days each year - the other being New Year's Eve - when our town puts on a small fireworks show), the prospect of a summertime road trip or two, the return of cherry + peach + apricot + plum + nectarine season, days of weather so stunning it almost makes you weep, and making plans on various fronts for the second half of 2016.


Love:

-Muted colours, as I blogged about recently in this post, are something that I simply can't get enough of at the moment. I recently ordered a fab new fifties dress in these earthy, goes-with-everything shades for fall and am already planning an outfit for October around it.

-And speaking of thinking ahead when it comes to my ensembles (ahh, the life of a full-time fashion blogger), a recent Etsy search for "Christmas pudding brooch" lead me to discover the most delightfully cool handmade fruit and veg themed jewelry shop on Etsy called By the Shed, and I'm not even joking when I say that I want every single thing that they're selling. If I receive some birthday money this year, I uber want to put a portion of it towards my first purchase from this awesome shop.

-Wearing all the vintage straw hats and carrying all the vintage straw/bamboo/raffia handbags. Hands down one of my favourite elements about summertime fashion is this point right here and I've wasted no time this year in putting my straw (et al) accessories to good use!

-Shopping my own closet, so to speak. As evidenced by some of the comments that I received on this  post last year (and various others, too), I know that many of are firm fans of putting existing wardrobe pieces to continued use in new and exciting ways, and that's something that I greatly enjoy and make a point of doing as well.

There is, objectively, relatively little I truly *need* when it comes to clothing and the older I get, the more I want to keep enjoying and experimenting with my existing wardrobe, which naturally means blogging many such outfits here with all of you.

-Kailey Flyte, better known to many online as Mermaiden's, cuter-than-cute collection of cell phone cases that she designed in collaboration with Casetify.

-Magnum Double Raspberry Ice Cream Bars: Oh my stars, are these things amazing! Tony and I just discovered this particular Magnum offering last month and to we're both beyond addicted to them now. Hands down these Double Raspberry Bars are in my top five favourite store bought ice cream products of all time. If you love the taste of raspberries, I seriously can't recommend them highly enough!




-Nestling our camping chairs into the sand down at one of the local beaches here and watching the sky transform from butter yellow to tangerine, coral, lilac and amber as the ever-hotter sun sets over either Okanagan or Skaha Lake.

-This adorable elderly British couple who finally tied the knot after dating for 42 years (aww!).

-When my wonderful Etsy customers blog about their purchases, such as Sara from In a Nutshell, Sarah (with an "h" :)) from Sew Characteristically You, as well as Jessica from Zella Maybe , and Elizabeth from Gloriously Vintage have all done did in recent weeks.

Thank you wonderful ladies each so much, I truly appreciate it! (Check out snaps from each of their awesome posts below, in order from top to bottom: Jessica, Sarah H., Elizabeth, and Sarah.)

{To learn more about a specific image used in today's post, please click on it to be taken to its respective source.} 

♥ ♥ ♥

What are your plans for this first Saturday of June, my dear friends? Recently my awesome sister, who lives in the nearby city of Kelowna, caught wind of a brand new vintage sale called the Okanagan Vintage Fair, which is holding its first ever event today, and rushed to tell me about it (isn't she the best!).

I didn't feel that I found out about it far enough in advance to attend as a seller (I usually need, due to my health, several weeks to prepare for an in person selling event, which then, there's never any guarantee that I'll be feeling well enough to attend; thus selling online via my Etsy shop, as I do, works so much better for me!), but I am hoping to bop up to Kelowna this weekend and attend as customer, if possible.

We have exceedingly few vintage related events, let alone sales, in this corner of the province and I really like to support as many of them that do exist as I realistically can (interestingly, a few days after my sister texted me about this event, the organizer - who I'd not interacted with before - contacted me via Facebook to invite me to attend, which was so sweet and thoughtful of her to do).

I know some of the folks who will be selling there and look forward to meeting others who are new to me, as well as to attend the premier occasion of this fun sale. Hopefully I'll return with a vintage treasure or two enrich my wardrobe and/or home with!

Aside from that, we're keeping things nice and on-the-fly this weekend, with few set plans and even less of a desire to be rushed or overly busy. These warm, gorgeous months are all too brief and one should savour them at a leisurely pace as often as possible (even if that means for just a few hours on the weekends or after work).

Have a stellar, delightfully fun - and hopefully relaxing - weekend, everyone!