The New Apartment!

So the moving is now done and I can give a mini tour of the house! Of course the unpacking has just begun....

Forgive the piles of stuff everywhere, but here is our apartment!

Here is the Living Room:




And here is the kitchen:




The area I live in, Renfrew , is one of the older areas in Calgary. In fact it used to be the air force base during WW2 but the air field was moved north shortly after the war spurring a ton of post war building in this area.

Here is the Telephone nook:



This telephone nook is my favorite part of the whole house, it's soo cute and it still has the cords set up so that you can plug in a phone there! However we aren't getting a land line so instead it will be a place to show off art or pictures.


Our building was built in roughly late 40's- early 50's. It has been renovated extensively so it doesn't have all the original features, but it does retain some great details like the phone nook and the pocket doors!

Pocket Doors:


The bedroom needs lots of work still but here it is:

You can just see my cat peeking out from under a blanket; but you can't really see my 40's rolltop desk with matching stool because it's hidden under oodles of stuff!


The Bathroom has some cute features too!




I've also been experimenting with 40's hairstyles in my non-unpacking time!



It actually looked quite nice in person, although you can't see it as well in the photos.

Still haven't set up the area of my house where I will take photos but I'm working on it!

More to come when I have more vintage household goods (I am working on getting some nice canisters for the kitchen!).

Bye for now!!

PS- Did anyone notice my site redesign? I redid the header and style of the blog and think it looks a lot better and more professional! I read all my blogs on RSS feeds though so I am posting this to let you know to go look at my blog so that you can see it!

Diners and Boxes

I went for dinner at my new favorite restaurant Diner Deluxe.

And it just happens that I live right beside it! I pride myself on my diner expertise (I go to diners a lot!) and yet I had never gone to this diner, which happens to be the most popular diner in Calgary according to several internet sources.

The unpacking is going very slowly and taking any photos seems impossible when there's so much work to do.

Oh well, it will happen eventually!



I wish I could make my house floor to ceiling 50's vintage furniture and decoration but unfortunately I love my girlfriend and she loves modern and --I must admit-- we both love Ikea... So that isn't going to happen. But the kitchen is where I am determined to have as much 50's diner style as I can! I'm working on increasing the 50's style to my kitchen so bare with me on it!


I found these links to some gorgeous 30's through 50's interiors from American Vintage Home.


Our bathroom is similar to this one (except smaller and less pink) which just makes me more desperate to get photos! Let's hope I can get some uploaded tomorrow... except that there are boxes everywhere... eep!

My Mad Men Dress

So I went to Inglewood this weekend, a trendy old area of Calgary, and came away with this adorable raw silk dress from Pendulum.
A friend works there, and I seriously need to ask her for some photos to put on here too! Maybe I should do a few posts where I just feature photos of my vintage loving friends? Humm I think that sounds pretty awesome actually! I will have to ask some people for photos. *puts on thinking cap*

Oh and please ignore the messy room in background of photos- moving is in full swing here and everything's in shambles!

Back to the dress! It's a nice simple dress with a cute matching bolero.



It's fully lined, from the 50's/60's and although it had some serious seam problems (just about every seam is falling apart) it was worth it! I fixed the largest holes and I'll just have to reinforce everything I can. I wore it to work yesterday and I love how 'Mad Men' it makes me feel.
I am not a huge Mad Men enthusiast, in fact I've only watched a few episodes, but I'll admit the reason I want to watch it is for the fashion.



I find it so difficult to find good photos of the fashions from the show online... does anyone know of any sites that just have screen shots of the dresses from the show?

Oh well, for now I'll just embrace my own mad men wardrobe!

Library of Congress Photos

I decided I'm going to post my favorite 40's color photos from the Library of Congress today. I love going through archives of photos searching out hairstyles and clothes to study from period photos of everyday girls!












See more photos here or on the flickr account.

Moving!

So I'm moving! That's the big news which I alluded to in previous posts!

Currently my home is a tangle of boxes because this weekend Sadie and I are moving to a beautiful 1950's building where we will enjoy our own apartment!
It's a really nice place and I can't wait to post photos once we've gotten everything straightened away.

While packing I came across one of my most prized possessions. I haven't blogged about it yet at all so I decided it was about time.

I was lucky enough to go with my mother on a trip to Italy and Greece in the summer of 2007. It was an early graduation gift and it was the best vacation of my life so far.

Anyways, the one nice present for myself that I bought on the trip was these shoes.



I saw them for the first time on our first day in Rome but they were 54 Euros and I didn't want to spend all my money in one day so I didn't buy them. I did get a picture of the window display with them in it though:



I ended up keeping my spending money for the entire trip, still searching for that one great thing to buy as my memento and on the second last day we were back in Rome to fly home and we went back to the store so that I could buy them!



I bought them on Via Ottaviano in Prati (It's the district right near the Vatican). The shopping in Rome was amazing though very expensive. Thanks to Google Street View whenever I feel nostalgic about Italy I can just go to the streets I've been to and walk down them in virtual reality!
Here's a photo from Google street view of one of the shoe stores on Via Ottaviano. I think this one, called Victor Victor, was the one I bought them at, but I'm not entirely sure.



So there you have it! Really pretty vintage style polka-dot shoes are one of my most prized possessions. They are so prized that I can't wear them.
I want to wear them for a photoshoot but other than that they are too precious to be ruined so I will eventually put them in a shadow box so that I can admire them while assuring their safety for many years to come!

Vintage Jewelry

I've been meaning to do a post on my vintage jewelry for a while so here it finally is!
I love vintage costume jewelry; it's cheap, it's widely available, it gives a perfect vintage look, and it's glitzy!

Here are some of my pieces modeled by my lovely faux-Roman bust, Diana:


This 50's rhinestone necklace was my grandmothers.



This is a really nice rose pendant. I think it might be Bakelite but I'm not sure. It was also my grandmothers and it has a matching earring set too, but my grandmother didn't have pierced ears so they need to have posts put on them.




A double strand of fake pearls with a really nice rhinestone closure, also my grandmothers from the 50's.


My great-aunt's rhinestone necklace circa 1940's. I love the blue color of the stones but I don't really have anything this goes with! I need to find some more outfits to wear this one with.




This is an early 20th century necklace. I'm not sure of the exact dating but this closure is definitely an earlier style. I'm going to guess teens? twenties? I'm not sure. The close up makes the pendant look big, but it's actually very very small and I think the stone is cut glass. It belonged to someone in my great aunt's family.


Here's another early 20th century pendant. I'm not sure when this is from either but it's pretty!


I love this 50's rhinestone necklace, my grandmother found this one somewhere in her house.

I'm a sucker for 50's earrings so I made my girlfriend model some:

There are more but I don't have photos of them yet (sigh).




This locket is one of my prized possessions. It's not worth any money and the stones are all rhinestones but it came from Italy pre 1950 and it was my great grandmothers.

There! I finally posted some vintage jewelry pics! Woo hoo!

Film Noir Dress

This dress is one of my 'have to try it on' dresses. I looked at this dress at least 4 or 5 times at Cat's Eye Vintage over several months but never payed it much attention.



I guess I automatically assumed that the bead work was in bad condition and that it was just boring black and lacked details.
The last time I was there, however, I was pleased to notice that it would probably fit me and that I should try it on just in case it looked good on me and HOLY COW did it ever look good on me! I automatically looked 20 pounds thinner and it fit me to a 'T'!

It's really hard to get good photos of this 1940's/50's dress but it is fantastic. It has exquisite beading around the front with contrast purple fabric (the whole dress is rayon) around the collar and on the ends of the sleeves. It also has a multi-tiered skirt which makes it look sort-of like a peplum dress.

It's really hard to see the tiered skirt; this was the best I could do.

This dress must have been very expensive to buy when it was first made. I am SOO impressed to find it and for a fairly good price too! It had several broken seams when I got it (I'm still finding them) but I've been diligently stitching them all up because this dress is a keeper! I've asked for a sewing machine for Christmas so let's hope Santa brings me one!

Also hopefully I will have big news to blog about soon! I don't want to post about it until it's a sure thing though! So lets hope for a big post soon!

Rocky Horror Post

Finally! Since Rocky Horror is a part of my life I think it's about time I make a post about it. And since it's what I did on Halloween this year, last year and every year probably for ever, it's worth mentioning.

If you don't know what Rocky Horror is, then you seriously need to look it up.

Photo by Jordan Morningstar

Rocky Horror is an experience, not just a movie. If you see it in a theater the props and call back lines make it completely different (and way funnier) then the movie itself is. It's one hell of a bizarre, naughty, cross-dressing, bi-sexual ride and it's very fun! Many people dress up and I am one of the shadow-casters; people who dress up as the characters and act out the scenes onstage.


In addition to the show itself, most casts do pre-shows, which are usually dance numbers, burlesque, skits or other fun events before the show itself begins. This is where I started doing burlesque.

Since Rocky Horror is played all over the world, chances are it's happening somewhere near you! You can look it up online or click here and scroll down to the section Rocky Horror Picture Show Shadow Cast Pages where it gives a list (although it's not that recent and our cast isn't on it) of casts all over the world.

Anyone who likes costumes, vintage lingerie, and corsets should appreciate the costuming in this movie. It may not have much to do specifically with vintage clothing but it's something everyone should know about none the less.

Halloween!

Halloween is finally here, and since it's my favorite time of year....

Here are photos galore of costumes that won't make you snore!






Yesterday was crazy busy as we celebrated Halloween at work, then I volunteered for a queer youth Halloween Dance and then went to volunteer at Rocky Horror!
I bought this gown from the online store Sofi's Stitches for my grade 12 graduation and I wore it as my grad dress. Here's me wearing it back then for grad:



I hadn't worn it since 2004 though, so I figured it was about time I bust it out for Halloween!



I also dressed up as Trixie yesterday for Rocky Horror. I love how pin-up this photo turned out!

And to be comprehensive, here is my other Halloween costume this season so far:


I was a regency era vampire for our Halloween Party. Here's me and Larissa who looks like one pretty fairy. It's the only photo of me for the night, so it'd have to do.

Yesterday's Outfit and a 50's day dress

Above is the outfit I wore to work today. [Note the spider web decorations still up from our Halloween party last week].

I think I have a slight obsession with Day Dresses. Ok, maybe with Day AND House Dresses. More and more I find myself interested in the clothes and images of what woman actually wore everyday and less interested in the images and evening wear of Hollywood from the 40's and 50's. I find my day dresses to be just as detailed and appealing as evening wear and it also tends to be less expensive yet rarer. If you think about it, people didn't keep as many ordinary dresses as they did wedding and special occasion dresses because gowns tend to me more expensive and detailed. However compared to anything you'll see in a store these days, a 50's day dress is far more detailed.



Just look at the intricate collar of this 50's day dress. It's what made me decide to buy it even though I wasn't crazy about it at first. I bought it from etsy, in case you're wondering.







I wore this one to work today!