setting sail

Hello, dear readers.

Tomorrow morning, I'll be leaving for a seaside holiday. I can't wait to comb the shore for shells and glass, smell the salty air, hear the seagulls crying, oh, and to eat up some fresh fish and saltwater taffy! My suitcase is packed with all my '30s and '40s nautical best, and I hope to have some pretty little pictures to share with you soon (just wait'll you see my original 1930s beach pyamas!).

However, I'll not be taking my laptop along with me, both for ease of traveling and ease of mind. So I'll see you in one week!

cool water

Here in Vermont, high summer has brought along its trademark muggy, hazy days. The air is so heavy with humidity and heat... I kinda like it, 'cause it's a nice excuse to while away my days eating ice cream in front of the fan, reading books and wearing gauzy slips, hehe. But actually getting dressed and going out into the world for a change can pose a slight challenge when most of your clothes are over fifty years old and of the fitted-waist variety. I have no great tips for staying cool on the city streets, I'm afraid; this here country girl can just nip down to the stream at the bottom of her backyard when the weather gets too hot. 

(The vegetable patch is coming along nicely!)

 

I wore a late 19th century cotton nightie under a 1950s square-dancing skirt on this particular summer afternoon. I suppose I have to find myself a peasant blouse sometime soon, for while this sweet nightgown has the right look, it's well over 100 years old and not really up to too frequent wearing. My thrifted white espadrilles I quickly slipped off when I decided to dip my feet in our brook!

Don't ya love this skirt?! It's so so full, a true circle skirt! It's not skimpy on the metallic ric-rac either; perfection.

Well, I hope all you Northern Hemispherians are having beautiful summer weather! 

little house in the big woods

Here I am, in another sweet little abandoned house in my town I've only just thought to photograph. This ramshackle place lies down a rather desolate dirt road, surrounded by towering pines, and appears to have been the home of an elderly lady. Her boxes full of dusty stuffed animals and empty pill bottles broke my heart; I wonder, did she have no family members interested in taking any of these mementos?

It's funny, little red abandoned houses, light blue dresses, and I seem to be quite a winning combination, it seems! I only wish I'd had my nice [and now broken ☹] camera so I could've documented this house with a bit more artistry. I think I'll have to spring for a new camera sometime soon, this cheap awful one is driving me mad.

Well, I hope you had a nice weekend! See ya soon.

southern belle dressing

I wish it was socially acceptable to wear ruffled gowns and hoop skirts every day. It's not like I waste too much time fretting over my outfits being socially acceptable or not, haha, but it'd kind of be pearls before swine, and getting in and out of doorways might pose a challenge. Anyway, I've had Southern Belle style on the brain lately (what else is new?)... specifically through the lens of Hollywood's Golden Era. Original 1860s dixie dames are swell and all, but their severe center parts and make-up free faces (oh, and slave ownership!) are not something I feel compelled to emulate. No, let's hear it for Old Hollywood's totally anachronistic interpretations of Antebellum style, with flaming red lips and piled up pincurls! I've been wearing my fullest-skirted '50s frocks, fluffiest crinolines, daintiest shoes, and lace galore lately to pay homage to these fiery gals.

Bette Davis in Jezebel:
(I omitted any pictures of her infamous red dress; I thought it was hideous!)

Elizabeth Taylor in Raintree County:

Now, I doubt you have heard of this next one, so I'll not bother with the details; it was a pretty low-budget production, I hear, and the actress some unknown!

Now these are interesting... dresses inspired by Vivien's get-ups that are contemporaneous to the film! How I'd love to stumble upon one of these lovelies someday... 

PS: Latest breaking news in Dakotaville... I can now drive a tractor. A rusty red 1940s Massey-Ferguson at that! My neighbor owns it (she's a real farmer, unlike poseur me) and she let me drive it all around one of her pastures, and it was the most fun ever, and I'm welcome to drive it anytime, she said, so one day I'll get pictures. I feel so badass chuggin' down the hill on a giant old tractor, hehe! All I need now is a corncob pipe. Also, it turns out tractors are just like dresses... the older they are, the better quality! This neighbor of mine bought this behemoth '40s beast used back in the '60s, and it's still going strong, and she uses it for [whatever one does with a tractor] to this day. Amazing!

rockin' bones

(1950s dress, antique lace collar and sash, Stetson boots, thrifted vintage basket purse)

Down the road a piece from my house there's a pretty magical old graveyard that I often visit on my evening strolls. The oldest grave I've found there is from 1793 (!!) and it goes up to about the 1910s, making all the headstones delightfully old fashioned, with beautiful fonts and sometimes sweet/sometimes grim little epitaphs. Cemeteries with more modern graves can be a little creepy to me sometimes, but I just don't get that feeling at all in this lovely historical resting place. I could spend hours meandering around, reading all the names and lifespans, and it seems each time I discover a new headstone. It feels so peaceful there. I also enjoy giving some of my thoughts to these folks; I mean, they've been dead and buried for almost two centuries, and have probably been just about forgotten by everyone else. Oh, and it's also quite fun to read all the family names, as many correspond to road names and old farming families that are still around here today!

I also have these pictures taken back in May, back when I had hair and all. I look frumpy, as it was just a lazy day outfit (a cozy '30s day dress/smock thing and Remix wedges) but the photos are much prettier, as they're taken with my nice camera before it broke:

Moses Van Doorn's epitaph (seen below) is my favorite:

Behold ye aged and ye young,

This scene before you set:

Here is the place, the narrow tomb,

With which you soon must meet.

Thank you for the cheery sentiments, Moses. Also, he died on Valentine's Day!

 

Well, now I must sound like quite the gloomy, morbid little thing, hangin' around graveyards and abandoned houses all the time, haha! Whatever, I guess objectively it is a little creepy, but I love all the history attached to it.
 Have a great weekend, y'all!!!

independence day

(Dress, crinoline, purse, gloves-- all '50s; Restricted wedges; J Crew headband)

Howdy folks! Did you have a nice Fourth of July? I ate barbequed chicken and ice cream, saw some fireworks, swam in the brook and had a nice stereotypical celebration.

And here's what I wore to America's Birthday Party! Usually I avoid wearing colors that correspond to the holidays (no red/green getups around Christmas or orange/black at Halloween for me!) but for some reason (lack of creativity?) I went with good ol' red white and blue this year. And as those colors are inherently kitschy, why not add a crinoline, gloves, and poodle purse for good measure? This dress is a summertime favorite of mine-- the sailor collar is pretty adorable.

Speaking of which, isn't this purse the best? It was a thrift store score, just $3.00, though I'd have paid much more for it! The poodles are made of beads, it's so great. Tragically the woven straw is falling apart at the bottom, as you can see, so I guess it's gotta be relegated to "display only". Well, I've had it since I was 16, so at least it's had a good run of it.

'Til next time, take care!!

the little things

Hello, hello! I've been neglecting Blogger something awful this week. I've been working so much lately, sun up to sun down practically, earnin' up some funds to waste on old dresses and knick-knacks. And, you know, pay for college and all that semi-grown-up jazz.

Today I wanted to share some pretty little things that have been inspiring me of late:

Look at this beautiful print I won in a giveaway drawing by the super talented lady behind Audrey Eclectic!!! Miss Sedona Sally here is currently presiding over my little cowgirl shrine (what can I say, when it comes to decorating I'm all about vignettes!) until I get some glass in that frame and find a suitable place to hang it. Isn't she gorgeous? She reminds me so much of the sort of lass Patsy Montana would sing about. The funny thing is, I've had this Victorian-era antique frame and its twin kicking around for about a year, and I just couldn't find anything worthy enough/the right size for them. Looks like I'll be ordering another of Heather's prints soon to fill out that other frame!

I hope she doesn't mind my showing a couple of her other works from her etsy store. I just adore the dreamy old-timey aesthetic, and I'm sure you all will appreciate it too:

Also, shifting gears here, whilst browsing the Victoriana Magazine website for some inspiration, I came across this darling 1880s child's scrapbook! I wish so much I could find an actual one of these someday; the Victorians get such a bad rap in modern pop culture for being all stuffy and dressing in drab colors, but they were such a wildly creative bunch! This scrapbook is the most magical thing; here are some of my favorite pages, and you can see the rest here.

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 I hope your week has been full of good cheer!! Enjoy the weekend, and a Very Merry Independence Day to all you American types! 

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