I'm Back

I haven't been around blog land at all this year. How shame-making of me.

The hours at the store where I work have been cut back and moved around, so I've been working almost exclusively the night closing shift for the past three months and nights are the time when I feel the most creative, in terms of writing.

I tried writing during the day before I have to go to work, but I've been distracted by rearranging my room. I live in an attic, so my room is quite oddly shaped and there is very limited wall space, but I finally figured out a plan to fit all of my stuff (at least the stuff that I didn't get rid of in my six month downsizing project).

What I have been mostly doing instead of blogging is watching a lot of TV. My library finally has a decent amount of complete television series on DVD, so I've finally been able to watch the TV shows that I've always been meaning to watch, but could never find a copy of. And I've gone through a burst of embroidery projects that have been on my mind for quite some time.

I feel that last year, I focused too much on my Cinema Tuesday series and less on other aspects of the vintage lifestyle. Mostly the television and music aspects, which do take longer to write a post of, particularly if I want to screen cap a TV series. So I've decided that for the rest of 2012, I'm going to limit Cinema Tuesdays to just three films a month in order to focus on writing on a wider range of vintage topics.

As always, I'm open to thoughts and suggestions.

Outfit Details:

The sweater, skirt and belt all come from the thrift store up the street from my house and the shoes are from Bloch and they are the perfect ballet flat. I thought the sweater was a bit boring on it's own, so I freehanded some embroidery along the neckline. Because I can. The necklace is from this lovely shop on Etsy. A lot of people of asked me about the meaning behind the small flower on my necklace, since I do wear it everyday, but if you've seen Harold and Maude, you'll understand.

I have a new television post that I'm preparing for tomorrow, but in the mean time, here is a random picture of one of my cats. Her name is Ruby (after Ruby Keeler) and she's a polydactyl cat, meaning that she has extra fingers on each of her paws. And if you've seen my FB profile, she's the one on my head in my profile picture. I've tried to get a picture of her sister, but she's small and quite shy.

My Favourite Summer Dress

This was my new favourite dress this past summer. It's cotton, easy to wear, from the Fifties, machine washable and I picked it up for only $15 from Red Light when I went to Portland. Clearly it's perfect and I can't wait to wear it next year and hopefully next year the West Coast will have a proper spring and summer. Right now the weather here is distinctly fall-like and has been for about a month, but it's still in that period where you can get away with just wearing tights and a cardigan and no jacket. I never realized how much I loved spring until we didn't get one this year. I was still having to wear my fur coats occasionally in May for crying out loud! *shakes tiny angry fist at Nature*.

So, where have I been for the past fortnight? Well, two weeks ago both my poor old kitty and my Grandma died quite suddenly. I haven't really felt like blogging or embroidering with the sinking realization that I no longer had any grandparents sooner than I had expected. This isn't my first death, but it is my first as an adult and there is so much more to do than I thought. I had considered shutting down ye olde blog, but I've decided against that since my Grandma was the only member of my family who actually read my blog and she loved it. So I'm pressing on with it. There will be a small giveaway sometime next month and I've just finished a terrific TV series that I know you'll just love, once I get some screen caps of it. And there are some books that I've been meaning to write about. Does anyone have any suggestions for types of books you'd like me to read and review? Or Musical Guests you'd like to see?

And tomorrow there will be two slightly belated Cinema Tuesdays posts for this month's theme of Retro Spoof Musicals. That'll will make more sense when you see which films I've picked, but you're welcome to guess.

I also have November and December's themes and movies selected, but does anyone have any suggestions for 2012's Cinema Tuesdays? I do pick themes several months in advance, since it sometimes takes me awhile to find copies of movies I want to screen cap, so suggest away.

That's all for now.

Daily Outfit and a Few Changes

This is what I wore yesterday. It was raining, so I had to wear tights, but now the sun is shining and the birds are chirping. Oh Spring! You just can't make up your mind, can you?

I've also decided that my porch shall be my new outfit photo taking place, since the lighting seems to be best.

Well dear readers, both old and new, I've finally finished what I've been working on for the past week, except for when Blogger was broken. I went back through my archives and edited every single one of my regular features posts, all of which now have comprehensive labels to click on and I've replaced any dead YouTube videos. And I noticed that some of my early posts had pictures that were formatted to fit the frames of my old layout, so I fixed that too.

And then, I compiled the links to everything and made them into lists in the form of the pages that are now underneath my banner *points upwards*. So, in case you miss my announcement of the theme for Cinema Tuesdays, you can now click on it to read the list instead of wondering what connection zombies have to Doris Day. Or you could spend hours going back through any movie posts that you might have missed and admire the fashion. Want to read a forgotten best-seller from 1924? Click on Vintage Books. Want to know the name of the greatest show that you've never heard of? It's under Classic Television.

I've also moved some things around on the sides and I've added the links to everywhere else that I'm on the internet, including my Facebook profile. I've decided against setting up a Facebook fan page for you to Like, so instead you can add my as a Friend on Facebook. Yay!

Daily Outfit

Sweater: vintage

Skirt: vintage

Belt: thrifted

Stockings: WKD

Shoes: Jeffrey Campbell

This is my last outfit post with my blue door.

This past month has been rather hectic for me and so I haven't been around much and this blog has been on autopilot, but I'm back now.

At the end of February, our landlord told us that she was going to sell the house we've (I still live at home, because Vancouver is the most expensive city in Canada) been living in for the past ten years and would we please move out in thirty days. So, instead of using my new degree to look for a non retail job, or at least figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life, I've had to pack up everything when I wasn't working. I tried to work on my blog in between packing boxes, but my cat objected to my packing his room and preferred that I be in a state of sleep deprivation, so I'm left with half finished drafts and scribbles of paper with ideas for posts and four Cinema Tuesdays posts in a row.

We finally moved on Friday to an old house in a one of the few neighbourhoods that I've never explored. I was shocked to discover this weekend that after not being connected to the internet for three days, the minority government in Ottawa had finally fallen over the new budget and a national election had been declared. I will explain this to any American readers who ask.

I now live in a hundred year old attic, which is lovely, only the slanted walls prevent me from setting up any tall Ikea bookcases with my eighteen boxes of books. But I do have room to set up my 1940's sewing machine in my room instead of in the narrow hallway like it was in my old place. I also don't have enough closet space for my clothes (of which I have not bought any in two and a half months), so I will be accepting any offers on some of my clothes in addition to listing some pieces on Etsy, when I have the chance. Does anyone have any recommendations on which clothes racks are the best and most inexpensive?

In order to pay for a trip to Ikea, I will be having a month long sale in my shop of 25% off all wall art and clothes starting tomorrow.

Any suggestions on what kind of posts you would like to read next?

I love Victor Borge! He's just so brilliant! You may have seen him on your local PBS station during the pledge drives. This is his Phonetic Punctuation piece, which is wonderfully hilarious:

Daily Outfit

I got this handmade skirt in the summer (on sale) and completely forgot about it. I think it's from the late Sixties, but I can't be certain since it's hard to date folksy clothes. Sometimes I think that I have too many clothes. Then I remember that one can never have too many clothes, only too few hangers. Maybe I should take the 30 for 30 remix challenge. Or just not buy anything in January and see if I can wear everything in my wardrobe at least once. Or not.

I've been embroidering like mad since I finished my last paper. I do like to make my own gifts, even though buying them is much easier and I have bought most of my gifts this year. I just have one major thing left to make this week, but I can't tell you what it is here since it's for my grandmother and Grandma is the only member of my family who actually reads my blog regularly. Does anyone else prefer to make their gifts? What do you like to make?

So, you know how I do theme months for Cinema Tuesdays. I've been thinking about which films to cover next year, because sometimes films are hard to obtain and screencapping does take a while. Does anyone have any suggestions for themes that you would like to see? Or a movie that you really love but want to see some more like it? Leave a comment below or send me a letter or a note on Twitter, which I'm now quite fond of.

Here to entertain you are Mr. Astaire and Mr. Kelly in Zeigfeld Follies:

Daily Outfit

I got this Seventies secretary dress a few weeks ago at a garage sale in a loft. I like finding places to shop that aren't on street level, like second floors and especially basements. Makes it much more interesting, don't you think?

I have just returned from what was (hopefully) my last class as an undergraduate and coincidentally it is also the last unbirthday of my twenty-first year. Although I still have a few papers left to write this week, it is a weird feeling that I wont be in school in January for the first time since I was five.

I have a lot of ideas for new posts, including more Classic Television posts starting on the weekend. I also have a huge list of vintage novels to read and review for my sadly neglected post series. Does anyone have a preference for the kinds of books that you want me to post about? Or any other post suggestions?

Could someone please explain to me what a Facebook Page is and what the point of it is? Is it just like the modern form of the fan club? If I sign up for one, will I get my own Mouseketeer? Because if I don't, then I really don't see the point of have one. I do of course have a Facebook profile, which I've just started to check on a regular basis, so that Facebook will stop sending me emails saying how disappointed they are in me because I'm not logging in every twenty minutes or so, but I still do find Facebook a little bit creepy.

I have on the other hand, just signed up for a Twitter account. At the moment I'm only following my local library, but I will follow all of my favourite bloggers as soon as I've finished my papers later on this week. But you can follow me @frogseyebrows for my irregular twitterings. Maybe someday I'll get the hang of social networking.

Oh, and the theme for Cinema Tuesdays this month will be Four Fashionable British Comedies.

My 200th Post!

This is my 200 post on the old blog. So, I thought I'd share ten things that I love.

Modern Times Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard

Movies

I am a film buff and a film geek. I freely admit and happily acknowledge that. I'm not doing a film studies degree, because I don't like analyzing films or becoming a pretentous, art house film snob. I just love watching movies because I can escape into a story, whether it be a fantastical tale, a lively boy meets girl musical or a searing realistic drama or even those really bad (and not B-movie bad) movies that are shown at 3 o'clock in the morning. I think that I've seen between 1000-1200 movies. I certainly don't remember all of them nor have I seen all of the ones that one is supposed to see, not even Chinatown or anything by David Lynch. How shame-making of me, I think I'll just go hide in the corner.

My favourite films (and it was really hard for me to decide) are: Hopscotch, I Know Where I'm Going, Duck Soup, Semi-Tough, Sherlock Jr, You Can't Take It With You and The Princess Bride. My favourite auteurs are: Woody Allen, Ernst Lubistch, Terry Gilliam and Guy Maddin.

Three Theatres by Fred Herzog 1957 (source)

Neon Lights

Vancouver used to have 19000 neon lights in the Fifties. But now there are barely a hundred. Neon lights fell out of favour in cities, I'm not entirely sure why but I think it's something to do with light pollution, attracting the "wrong" sort of people and changing perceptions of what is tacky. I love neon, it's an artform and a wonderful showcase of post-war prosperity. Neon Lights are also landmarks and add a bit of colour to the dark night and show how lively city life can be. Anyone who thinks that neon is tacky and attracts the wrong sort of people probabily never wears brightly coloured socks.

"Well, it's just gone 8 o'clock and time for the penguin on top of your television set to explode"

Television

What can I say about TV? Old shows, new shows, variety, sitcoms or miniseries, I love them all. Except for "reality" shows or Japanese game shows. I'm not sure why I love watching TV other than I'm a product of my generation. An I was named after a character on a sitcom. There are shows that I re-watch every year; The Prisoner, Pride and Prejudice, The Day the Universe Changed (I actually watch that two or three times a year) and then there are shows that I watch occasionally and the new (to me) shows that I discover. I even watch Top Gear and I don't know how to drive. My favourite shows change all the time, but at the moment include: Perry Mason, QI, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Futurama (which I prefer to The Simpsons), Leverage, The Addams Family, Black Adder, Black Books, Fawlty Towers, Doctor Who (classic and current), WKRP, That Mitchell and Webb Look, Slings and Arrows, Nero Wolfe and of course, Monty Python.

Embroidery

Apart from thrifting, I consider embroidery to be my only hobby. I can't do needlepoint, macrame, crochet and don't even get me started on my inability to knit. Embroidery is also a fairly cheap hobby and you can hang it on your wall, embellish your clothes and work away at it while watching something (instead of snacking) or while waiting for a bus to arrive or a page to load when the internet is having a slow day.

Reading

Ever since I learned to read when I was three, I haven't stopped. When I used to work in a used bookstore, people used to come up to me and say "Oh, you must be a reader." No, actually I'm illiterate, is what I wanted to say.

I quickly progressed from Beatrix Potter and Robert Munsch to Edgar Alan Poe, Sherlock Holmes, Homer and Jane Austen before I was in high school. My love of books may be why I'm doing my BA in English and Humanities, the two most reading intensive subjects at university. I don't like reading things online and I hate the idea of the Kindle. I have to have the physical copy in front of me. This may be why I have five Billy bookcases in my room and a giant pile on the floor that's enough to fill a sixth. Whether it's poetry, prose or fiction, as long as it's interesting, I'll read it.

I don't have a favourite author, but when anyone asks, I just say P. G. Wodehouse. My favourite book is the two Alice ones, my favourite poem is "The Owl and the Pussycat", my favourite poet is Keats and Shakespeare is, quite possibly, one of the greatest men that ever breathed and my favourite is Twelfth Night.

(source)

Whodunits

As regular readers may have gathered, I love whodunits. I like the puzzle and trying to sort out the clues from the red herrings and figure out the solution. Plus it's jolly good fun. I even prefer playing Cluedo rather then Monopoly, which usually becomes violent once someone buys a hotel. I also love watching mysteries, especially curled up with a blanket, a mug of tea and my embroidery during a dark and stormy night. I hate Columbo because they show the solution first and that takes all the fun out of it. I don't watch any modern mysteries, although that new Sherlock series is excellent. I prefer to watch Perry Mason, Nero Wolfe, Jim Hutton as Ellery Queen, Joan Hickson as Miss Marple, David Suchet as Poirot (and he's almost done filming all of them. Round of applause), Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter Wimsey, Peter Davison as Albert Campion and Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes. My favourite authors are Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Rex Stout, Margery Allingham and Dorothy L. Sayers.

Milk

I love milk.

It is very good.

I have it in my coffee, but never in my tea.

I prefer 2% if you please.

Steve McQueen drank milk,

And Steve McQueen is cool,

Therefore milk is cool.

Django Reinhardt in 1946 (source)

Jazz

What can I say about jazz? Either you love it or you don't understand it. This is my favourite song, without lyrics:

Steed and Mrs. Peel

These two were my role models and my idea of super heroes. You can keep your Green Lanterns and Batmans (except for the campy Sixties Batman). Steed and Emma saved the world every week from devious masterminds and did so with style and intelligence. They outwitted the villains and had fun (and drinks) doing it. Mrs. Peel showed us that women could be intelligent and educated spies instead of screaming while tied to the train tracks. Steed showed us that no amount of Bond gadgets were a match for a trick umbrella and a metal lined bowler hat.

Fur Coats

My favourite thing about winter is that I get to wear my fur coats. In fact they were the subject of my first post. I now have three and they all cost $45 each, which is weird. I'm determined to find a full-length mink for under $100. I say it can be done! They're stylish and incredibly warm. As to the anti-fur statements, I've never received anything other than wonderful comments and strangers touching my coat. And it's recycling, since I'm the only one who reuses them, and it supports local businesses. So, if you find a fur coat, buy it!

Daily Outfit and a Winner

And the winner of my blogiversary giveaway, according to the theory of randomness, is Andi B. Goode. Congrats Andi, if you could kindly send me your address, I'll hop on down to the post office.

I've decided that I shall have another giveaway when I get to 50 followers, so do tell your friends, or your enemies (I don't ask questions). Does anyone have any suggestions, or offers, as to what I should include next?

In other blog news, my 200th post is coming up this week, so I jotted down a special post in my spare ideas notebook today and am now hunting up some pictures to add a visual interest.

I do hope that everyone remembered to set their clocks back an hour before retiring on Saturday night. Or is it an hour forward? I find it interesting that the only wartime policy still with us is Daylight Savings Time, instead of something useful and practical, like Make Do and Mend or Victory Gardens (I've got one). If I ever become Prime Minister, my first act would be to abolish Daylight Savings and introduce an afternoon nap time for twenty minutes.

Cardigan: vintage

Sweater: thrifted

Skirt: thrifted

Scarf: vintage

Sweater Clip: vintage from Vintage Envy

Belt: thrifted

Shoes: Börn

Tights: Hue

Blogiversary Giveaway

Well, last Sunday marked the one year anniversary of my blog. And so after 66 outfits, 37 vintage books reviewed, 45 movies screen capped and almost 200 posts, here is the traditional Blogiversary Giveaway.

Ta-da!

Included are a polyester Japanese scarf from the Sixties, a souvenir coin purse from the Philippines, an unopened pair of seamless mesh stockings and this embroidery of a jitterbugging couple. That I made. I even framed it. She reminded me of Betty Grable in Down Argentine Way and He reminded me of Archie Goodwin dancing at the Flamingo Club. Yes, I can combine film and literary characters. You can see detail shots here and here.

Anyone can enter. All you have to do is leave a comment telling me your favourite whatever. Book, movie, season, word, time of day, TV show, breakfast cereal, you know whatever. Want to enter again? Mention the givewaway on your blog, twitter or facebook thing and leave another comment(s) with the link. Easy.

Giveaway will be open for two weeks and the winner will be chosen by random number on the 7th of November at around midnight-ish Pacific.

Daily Outfit

So, what do you think of the new layout? I've been meaning to change it for quite sometime and yesterday I spent almost two hours figuring out the new template design feature. I'm quite pleased with the result. Because I have no idea how to graphic design stuff on the computer, I took out my pencil and sketchbook and drew myself a new banner then I embroidered it, took a picture and cropped it in iPhoto. The yellow polka dot fabric is one of the first fabrics I used when I was learning how to hand sew when I was a child. And "The Owl and the Pussycat" is my favourite poem.

Last week after hours getting lost in all of those beautiful images floating around, I finally started my own Tumblr and I've just now signed up for something called Bloglovin' Follow my blog with bloglovin

I think I'm really starting to get the hang of this internetty stuff. I might even start to remember to sign into Facebook more than once every few months. I may even decide to sign up for Twitter, instead of just stalking Stephen Fry on it to find out when a new episode of QI airs.

What I have decided to do is to let you decide on a theme for next months' Vintage Novels posts. It can be anything -an author, genre, decade, nonfiction, essays, whatever. I'll read anything.
I found this skirt last week at my favourite thrift store. It's new, from Australia and I don't think it was ever worn. I really like the abstract print and the ribbon and ric rac around the waist.

Shirt: thrifted

Skirt: thrifted

Scarf: vintage

Earrings: vintage

Sandals: thrifted SAS

Mah Jong Bracelet: vintage