Dior Darling!

(image source)

Yesterday, the sis and I decided we had to get our act together and go see the couture exhibition before it finished. I'm so glad we did! Vintage designer fashion, from 1947-57, hurrah! Luckily we went early, as by the time the gallery doors opened, the queues were right around the block. Downsides: exhibition catalogues had sold out, low lighting (as to not damage frocks) made it hard to see a lot of them, and my personal pet peeve, inconsiderate gallery goers. Ahem, try an excuse me? Or even better, when I ask you if I can get past, actually pull your head out of your arse and acknowlege me.
The lack of catalogues (how hard would it be to print more?) and the no photography rule meant that I don't have any pics for you, so here's some I've cadged from here:

Favourites were two of Princess Margaret's evening frocks with TINY TINY waists - one navy and one black with diamente beaded shoulder straps; a gorgeous off-white ostrich feather confection with embroidery and beading; and a gorgeous shoulderless full length French (Givenchy) evening gown, embroidered all over with a lily of the valley motif, that wouldn't look out of place as a wedding dress. The Queen's coronation dress was also there, as well as a case full of corsets and bullet bras, and lots of Audrey-esque ensembles.

(Here's my fave dress as mentioned above "'Les Mugeuts' Evening dress by Hubert de Givenchy, 1955", image source)

Exhibition is on at the Bendigo Art Gallery until March 22, so if you can manage it, I'd recommend a trip!

Here's some more images, from The Age: (source)

(The dress in the foreground of the above pic is the Queen's Coronation Dress.)


Mmmm, frocks.

Somewhat Christmassy

For all you pudding makers out there, via the National Archives of Australia online collection:
You can’t cook your coin and eat it too

"The introduction of decimal currency in February 1966 had the latent, and somewhat un-Christmassy knock-on effect of inadvertently taking the gloss off one of the great Yuletide customs – coins in the Christmas pud!

Why? According to this News Release and the accompanying photograph, the new 5 and 10 cent coins were made of cupro-nickel, not silver alloy. And they would turn green when cooked.

But for those who wanted to continue hiding coins in the Christmas pudding, the recommendation was simply to insert the new currency immediately prior to serving … after all, who would know?

Some of us were lucky enough to have grandmothers who kept their superseded threepences and sixpences for the express purpose of feeding the Christmas pudding, thereby ensuring the tradition continued and the thrill of discovery lived on for many a year. "




Of course, now 1 and 2 cent coins are just history, sometimes you find them down the back of the couch. But never in the Christmas pud.

Vintage Thingy Thursday...on Friday again.

I found this little biccie jar at Savers last night. Holly Hobbie from the 70's. Sorry for the uninspiring on-my-desk-at-work photo.

*edit : Savers is a second hand department type store chain. Check out their website to find one near you. You can find some good stuff there, but sometimes their prices are silly-expensive.

Home of vintage thingys now here.

A seasonal Shorpy fave

A christmassy fave from the Shorpy blog. I'd love a vintage train set for Christmas!

Pink bakelite

So far, birthday week has been rather yielding...here's the latest one that HP surprised me with yesterday (via saying "I won you a radio on e-bay"). It's an AWA Radiola value radio, in deep pink bakelite! Oooh!

[The pic is from the e-bay listing, better ones when it's home.]
I love old valve radios, and have ever since I used to live in Windsor and walk past Resurrection Radio every day (are they still there in Chapel St?*) and see all the Art Deco beauty. We've got a large 40's radio/record player unit in the lounge room, and I also have an old radio case that was in mum and dad's house when they moved in, so I think I've already got a collection without even trying. And unlike the portable typewriters, I'm not even going to try and stop myself with these. Just looking at the pics on e-bay makes my mouth water.


* just googled, they're now in Ashburton.

Vintage Thingy Thursday : tinnie time

All Aussies love to crack a tinnie! Especially me, and a couple of weeks ago (back when I actually had some money, ha ha) I ordered this gorgeous vintage tin from the Tinnie Girl. The other day I collected it from the post office where it had been patiently waiting for me...and hurrah! Such goodness!

A lovely vintage chocolate(?) tin, filled with two pieces of vintage material, vintage buttons, vintage thread and one of my fave things ever, embroidery floss (am I the only one addicted to the stuff...I keep buying it!). Of course the hard question is what to make with my new crafty stash??

If you're looking for a gift for a crafty girl, check out the Tinnie Girl shop, and for more Vintage Thingys visit it's new home:

Vintage thingy Thursday : Stuff it!

I can't remember if I've blogged this one or not, but as it's Vintage Thingy Thursday and I'm feeling a bit sick, here's an easy option for me - an advertisement from my You Tube collection (via Australian Screen).


Vintage Thingy Thursdays are brought to you by the Apron Queen.

Happy smellies

Vintage magazines make me happy.
Fabulous illustration work make me happy.
Bourjois cosmetics make me happy (such good stuff!)
Playing with girlie smelly requisites* makes me happy.
An evening in Paris would make me happy too, but that's not going to happen any time soon!

* "requisit-t-t-teeets" a la Michael Palin (he makes me happy too.)

A Week of Happy at Mikes is also happy.

[piccy source here] Click on pic for full size.

Vintage thingy Thursday : a poultry offering

Poultry make me happy, I love chooks and ducks...well all birdies really. If you're not at all interested in vintage chook loving, best look away now. So today's Vintage Thursday Thingy is a copy of the Poultry Tribune magazine from 1934, that's been kicking around my office at work. It's not a very stimulating read, all dry stuff about raising the best chickens for your dollar, and given this was depression era America, I suppose that's logical. Win money- $1500 in Cash! growing "those fluffy balls of down"... that would have been a pretty good prize at the time.

For example, the article on page six is titled "Chickens Pay!" and starts:
"I wanted to go to college and I wished to study music," Lillian Becker, 21 year old Cass county, North Dakota, poultry and egg producer, said as she laid down her chicken house cleaning tools. That is the reason why I launched into the poultry and egg business...And here I am still in the business which has proven profitable the past two years in spite of 'slow times'."

Here's Lillian (a girl after my own heart) cuddling one of her chickens:

I like the advertisements, they're all rather charming...bring those eggs out! Make them pay! Actually it sounds rather painful really. Run little hen!
And of course to keep the lady of the house happy, there's the requisite pattern service, a stern toned article on "Homemaking!" (this magazine! likes! exclamation! marks!) and even the odd bit o' humour:
"Was your garden a success this year, Mr Wiggins?"

"I'll say so! My neighbor's chickens won three prizes at the State Fair." Boom boom!

I'm a bit dubious about the "harmless fun" of this one...but just hope he doesn't fire at the chickens!

More Vintage Thingy Thursdays of a less paltry nature here.

Vintage thingy Thursday - more advertising

From the Ladies Home Journal, 1944:

[click pic to see in real size]

Part of me wants to be the "Fresh" girl, look at her perfect hair, pretty blouse and lovely dressing table. The next picture, of a real life container of Fresh is from Karen's photostream (she has the best stuff!).

I wonder, will people in 50 years time look back at the pakaging of our everyday objects with fondness and longing, like we do with vintage thingys now? Is it a matter of nostalgia or taste? Can anyone explain the appeal? All I know is that I love anything from about 1920 - 1955.

Vintage Thingys via the Apron Queen. Check it out!

Not Brown Owls

Some wee girlies, doing some sort of domestic arts, but definitely not having fun! Via the Shorpy blog.

Reason to be thankful for a Monday morning #1

...no-one "has" to wear girdles anymore.

Where am I?

Besides stuck in the 50's? I wish I could have seen this place years and years ago...was it nicer then? What did we have before bogans? I want this town to be nice again, oh yes.
Picture source.

Vintage Thingy Thursday

As I'm in the process of cleaning up my workroom, I thought I'd show you some vintage sewing thingys today:

• Australian Home Journal from 1957 (still has the patterns in it)


• Simplicity Cross Stitch transfer pattern from 1946 (I grabbed this one because I thought the illustrations were rather cute)


• "Novelty" Embroidery Trimming, not sure how old this is, my guess is the '20s (it's quite lovely and stitched with proper embroidery floss rather than plain cotton)

Still a lot of work to do in making my workroom workable once again. So far I've got my new shelves in, put all my books in the bookcase section, and packed away tidily my vintage embroidery stuff (priorities). Next step is to sort out my fabric stash, which is not large, but very disorganised and scattered. Wish me luck.

More Thingys via the Apron Queen.

Public Service Announcement

Don't leave the iron on, okay?

Buy this poster here.

Vintage kittehs...to show Hollie

A post on Hollie's new blog reminded me that I haven't shown you my latest cutesy china find, a pair of kitties, joined together with a chain. I got them from Savers for $3, which I thought was too much, but I did love them! (They also had a similar pair of squirrels, but they were $8.99 so I cracked the poos and didn't buy them. Bah.) Anyway, like fluffy-eared dressing table dog, they are also fuzzy-topped and nicely kitsch. And just 'cause I love him, here's a pic of my (also thrifted) kitty pepper shaker... I wish I could find his friend Salt!

Have you checked out Hollie's Vegan and Vintage blog? It's lovely and good reading, and I like it when people start secondary blogs about their passions! (Makes me feel like I'm not alone with my billions of blogs...ahah.)