We’re celebrating almost 100,000 words over at <a href=”http://fairburytales.wordpress.com” target=”_blank”>Fairbury Tales. </a>

<a href=”http://fairburytales.wordpress.com/2008/09/04/lets-celebrate-100-thousand-words/” target=”_blank”>Join the fun </a>in guessing what the 100,000th word will be and maybe you’ll win the grand prize!

 

Southern California in spring and summer.    The beautiful bluish purple trumpet flowered carpets that cover the sidewalks, streets, and yards are a memory I pray I never forget.  I loved those flowers.  I hated stepping on them and seeing the crushed petals under my feet.  It always reminded me of that poem my father loved The Fool’s Prayer

 

These clumsy feet, still in the mire,

Go crushing blossoms without end;

These hard, well-meaning hands we thrust

Among the heart-strings of a friend.

 

Well, I’ve infused my life with just a bit of bit of vintimagery and added a Jacaranda to my house.  It’ll be living inside until spring and then I’ll stick him outside and let him look gorgeous in my front yard.   If he grows nicely, maybe I’ll get him a brother, sister, best friend, or even a wife if he’s really nice.  Isn’t he pretty?

 

 

Flowering trees are out of favor in so many areas.  People don’t want the mess of the flowers everywhere so they tend to choose pepper trees… similar leaves, trunks, and just a few seed pods that look like brown snow peas rather than the flowers.  They’re easier to sweep up don’tcha know.  In a few years, prayerfully I’ll have one of these!

 

 

And then… in a few years… this could be my street…

 

It’s a little more work than the old ray wood ash we have out there but prayerfully

 

1. It might live.
2. It’s prettier.
3. It’s mine.

 

It’s a wonderful life.

I’m curious.  What do I have, in my home today, that they didn’t have in 1940.

 

• 4 laptops
• 2 desk top computers
• various routing system paraphrenalia for those computers
• DVD
• VCR
• VCR Tapes (about 30)
• DVDs (more than I care to count)
• Books.  Seriously, I think I probably have triple the books of the average 1940s family.  I think they utilized the library more.
• Hundreds of yards of fabric  (I no longer have more patterns than a human being should be allowed to see much less own!)
• Dishwasher?
• Toaster Oven AND a Toaster?
• Crock-pot
• Microwave (two of em)
• Air purifier?
• Water purifier?
• Kids?  (I have nine.  How many people had more than 4 or 5 at most?)
• We have 2 cars.  I don’t think that’s unusual for then.
• Cleansers?  Do we have more or less than they did?
• 3 sewing machines
• 1 serger
• 1 embroidery machine (I really need to sell this thing)

 

What is my point?  Well, there is this old saying “Live within your harvest.”  I love that saying.  I love the reminder that we must learn to survive with what we have instead of borrowing against the future.  Well, the same could be true of our homes.  “Live within your domicile.” 

 

I think I need a new catch phrase.  Maybe I’ll make a new contest for that.  What do you think?

 

Meanwhile, the idea is a good one.  I live in either 1100 or 1240 sq ft.  (Depending on whether you believe the deed to our property or the guys who poorly sided the house 20 years ago).  Either way, it’s not a big house.  I cannot exist as though it is!  Did people over pack and over “organize” and over decorate their homes 60-65 years ago?  Probably some did but was it as epidemic as it seems to be now?

 

Here is an actual living room from the 1950’s. 

 

 

 

Here is one option for today in one style…

 

(Visit your local IKEA to purchase products above)

 

And for a different look- perhaps something more traditional and less “cottage chic”…

 

(See your local Pottery Barn for the items in this room)

 

Now, this isn’t about style.  One person will be drawn to the pink and white while another will love the clean lines and earth tones of the last room.   Still others will hate them both!  My point isn’t about prefrences.  It’s about the subtleties of the middle room.

 

That room is designed for storage.  The ottomans store things, there are shelves everywhere, cupboards, the works.  This is part of who we are as a country now.  People don’t dream of a new dresser anymore.  They dream of new closet organization systems and not just because they’re more efficient uses of space!  Many people who talk about owning such a system ALSO HAVE THE DRESSER. 

 

I don’t want to pretend that there is anything wrong with having so much.  If you have the space to store it and it blesses you to own it, and you haven’t stolen it, or nearly as bad- indebted yourself at 21% interest in order to possess it, enjoy the bounty of your labors!  Own fifty pair of shoes, thirty purses, or sixty scarves!  I’m not preaching against ownership.   I only wonder about that little space issue.

 

In 1950 the average home was 983 sq. ft.  Today the average new single-family home is almost 2400 sq. ft.   Don’t believe me?

 

 

There.  And that’s from two years ago. 

 

There’s nothing wrong with a bigger house either, I’d like to add.  I wonder why our houses are bigger.  Is it because of our exercise equipment, our media, our collections, our…  The list goes on indefinitely and again, I really want to be obnoxious and stress, I dont’ care!  Have 5000 sq ft and pack it out with everything you have room for in that house.

 

So what am I yammering about if not the stuff I seem to be attacking?  (And i truly don’t mean to. Promise!)  Vintimagery.

 

Look at that first picture up there.  Do I like that living room?  NO.  I don’t like it at all.  I am not so smitten with the past to assume it was always brighter, simpler, or more appealing to my design tastes.  It wasn’t.  That particular room is too sparse for my taste.  I hate clutter but the only thing I hate almost as much is an ascetic feeling when I walk into a room.

 

I like both the bottom rooms (hence why I chose them over something more Victorian or more modernistic).    The middle room is too cluttered for me but I could make it work with a few things removed.   Those lamps would go, most of the pillows, all but one or two of the bottles, and the rug over the ottoman.  I’d keep the blankets but store them IN the ottoman with one or two of the pillows.  I’d leave space for my eye to rest in that bookcase and I would go nuts with that many patterns mixed.

 

I just realize, however, that we have more stuff than they did.  We have more kitchen gadgets, computers, all the media stuff, video and board games out the wazoo, I won’t even go into the obscene amount of TOYS most American children own, and if you’re a homeschooler… WATCH OUT!

 

Which brings me back to the beginning of this ramble through my baffling mental processes.  I live in this house.  I am not moving.  This kind of leaves me with three options in the realm of home keeping and decor.

 

1. Live with status quo.  My life isn’t awful so this is a valid option!
2. Reduce my possessions to fit comfortably in the house.
3. Both of the above AND adjust our house to accomodate the maximum the house can, well, house!

 

I think I’m going for  number three.  I need to decide what items I care most about owning and purge the rest.  I need to think about the best way to store what I do own.  In the end though, if I don’t have a home and can’t find a home for something, shouldn’t I be willing to either part with it, or part with something else that is taking up space where this item needs to reside?

 

The thing is, how do you do this without turning your house into that 1950’s sterile environment up there?

 

And what do you call the storage equivalent of “Live within your harvest?”   Watch for a contest!  I’ll make notecards of the logo up there as the prize!

 

 

 

 

 

 

So what does my new project have to do with vintimagery anyway?  Well, I’ll tell you.  This outfit took hours.  I bet I spent 10 hours in embroidery and hand stitching and about 1 in all other sewing and cutting.  It’s ridiculous in the modern sense of things. I could have whipped out a servicable jumper that would have been sweet and darling in less than an hour.  But I didn’t.  I imagined this outfit, I dreamed it up, and I executed it.  (Why does that sound so fatalistic?) 

 

As I sewed, I remembered the book Freckles by Gene Stratton Porter.  As Freckles is lying in a hospital bed and has given up on life, “Angel” tries to snap him out of it.  He declares he’d find life worth living if only he had proof that his mother “didn’t do it.”  So, Angel hurries off to the orphanage determined to get the clothes he arrived in and examine them.  If they were embellished and sewn with tiny careful stitches, it’d prove (in the mindset of the day) that he was beloved and his mother took great pains with what she had to outfit her baby.  Of course the clothing was beautifully and meticulously stitched and they all lived happily ever after.

 

That scene has swirled in my mind over the years.  I’d whip out a jumper with as little work put into it as possible knowing that the first time a child wore it, it’d probably be torn.  Why add those touches when it’d look terrible in no time?  Don’t get me wrong, I know that they used to think exactly like I do.  I know they used to have to mend and patch as often or more than I do  I know these things.  But, they made clothes prettier then anyway.  They took the time to make pinafores to protect them and while those who worked hard from sun up ’till sun down and didn’t have the money or time to add embellishments to their children’t clothes stuck with plain and serviceable, those in the middle classes, tried as they could to give their children a sense of beauty and showed their love and care for their families with embroidery, special sewing techniques, and careful stitching.  It won’t kill me to do the same thing from time to time.

 

Of course, I live in the twenty first century.  I can use time saving devices and modern techniques to speed up the process.

 

Oh, and one more thing!  Just like the frugal housewives of the Depression era, this outfit features recycled fabrics!  Yep, that denim I cut from the legs of Daddy’s jeans.  Lorna will wear him near and dear to her heart.

I arrived home from an impromptu trip to the mountains and the notecards had arrived so it was time to pick a winner.

 

I put everyone’s names on a tiny slip of paper in a sweet Polish pottery bowl and added an extra name for every referral I knew of.    Then I drew a name from the bowl.  I had lots of great ideas about taking pictures and making a lot of fun of it but dead batteries kind of killed that idea.  Pun intended.

 

The lucky winner?  (Or is that blessed, Providentially chosen, etc?)

 

BETHANY!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Send me an address where  I can ship your cards this week!  WAHOO!

 

I have a cool beans outfit that just screams vintage to me but it is not classic vintage either.  I love that!  Stay tuned.

Potholders.  They’re a necessity of life. It’s not like you can bake anything without  having a way to get it back out of the oven.  You need potholders.  Yes, need.

 

The popular choice of today is silicone.  The flappy little things are amazing and even look “techno” in their sleek simplicity.  Look:

 

 

A mere 11.19 (15.99 retail) for two at Amazon.com.

 

Or, one could have something soft, comfortable, and hand made.  Quilted squares (or solid panels if you prefer I’m sure) sandwich layers of felted wool to create the perfect protection for your hands.  Functional AND beautiful.  My favorite.  Behold!

 

 

I bought four of these.  I love them, I’ve used them extensively, and they still look like new.  Look!

 

 

I have red, green, blue, and yellow.  They’re so pretty!   Silicone has nothing on these babies!

 

One more time… look… workmanship…

 

I strongly recommend a trip to Cathe’s Shop at Etsy and treat yourself to these beautiful kitchen TOOLS!

First Grade.  Mrs. Rivas’ class.   The far right of the “base” of the “U” of buildings at Flory Elementary school in Moorpark California.  I only remember learning the Spanish words cat (gato), house (casa), and dog (perro- it was hard because we had a boy Pedro in the class.  Confusing to a gringo from Oklahoma, I’ll tell you!  But, I remember art.  We made “stained glass” out of colored hard candy and we did silhouettes.  1976.  That’s definitely vintage.  I love silhouettes

The other day Dell and I were talking and she showed me this marvelous Etsy store, Le Papier Studio.  To me, these are a perfect example of the old melded with the now.  Look at the exquisite choices!  This one is going to have a home in my girls’ new bedroom.

 

 

Isn’t that just charming?  I love how the children are the right age and gender for mine!  Oldest two are Jenna and Andra (girls) then the boy (Ethan) and then the little girl at the end is Lorna!  It’s perfect!    I know I’ll want three of them in there so I’m also considering  this one,

 

 

and this one

 

 

 

And look how they can be utilized in a photo grouping!

 

 

She also sells stationary which I consider to be just delightful.  I’m seriously considering it for my “signature style.”  I’ve always wanted one of those…   Should I use these…

 

 

Or stick with more traditional like these…

 

 

I have a profile picture of lorna as a new toddler… just the face… it’s precious.  I could special order…

 

Silhouettes.  They’re timeless, beautiful, and, if on a notecard, reach across the miles and add beauty to more than just your own life.  If you’re going to take the time to share your heart with a friend or any loved one (and shouldn’t we all do that from time to time?), why not give your written art a beautiful canvas on which to brighten someone’s day?

 

Images used in this post are used by the gracious permission of the owner, Vana and I recommend you check out her blog- the drawings of Santa Barbara she’s sharing right now are stunning.  Makes me think of my own days wandering that city with my parents. 

As a launch of my new blog I thought I’d have a little give-away just to see who has found it!  I won’t be telling any of my friends that this is here but I hope if anyone finds it they spread the word.  I may have a special prize for anyone I know who let others know about it!

 

The “rules” are simple.  Make a comment on this post and name one thing that says “vintage” to you.

I’m giving away a set of 12 photo note-cards for a little ‘old fashioned’ writing.   

 

These flowers I bought yesterday at Albertson’s 3 for $12.00 .  I loved the colors so much that I just had to play with it photographically speaking.

 

Thank you and good luck!  I can’t wait to see who wins… and I’ll die laughing if no one finds it and comments!

My parents infused my life with beauty and subsequently instilled a love of it in me.  I remember my father taking the time to show me the striking beauty of a single red tulip pushing its way through the snow in Wrightwood when I was nine.  I don’t remember anything else about that day.  It’s a hazy blur in my mind which is highly unusual for me.  If I can remember a single event of a day, I can generally recall the entire day or at least a significant portion of it.  Not that one.  I remember the tulip.  It looked like a rosebud standing poudly and a little fearfully in the snow.  I have a picture of it somewhere.

 

I remember them showing me the detail of the capital buildings in most American cities.  Have you noticed that they all look pretty much alike in general but the details are strikingly unique?

 

The California State Capitol Building

 

 

The Vermont Capitol Building

 

 

 

The United States Capitol Building

 

 

 

Even the Florida State has a hint of the dome!

 

 

All of the buildings I saw, even those without domes, still fit the feel of a “capitol building.”

 

Even if the neo-classical architecture of those older buildings don’t appeal to your personal sense of asthetics, I can’t imagine anyone not seeing that much time and attention to detail went into those older buildings.  They weren’t merely functional.  There was more to it than just how many offices you could pack into a city block. 

 

Even more sleek buildings like the Chrysler Building have asthetic appeal. 

 

          or       

 

 

It seems to me that in years past, function and beauty were not incompatible ingredients to life.  Houses were designed with carved molding, inset bookshelves, windowseats ad who knows what.  Bridges were beautiful.  BRIDGES.  No, I’m not talking about the quaint covered bridges of places like Vermont and Pennsylvania.  How about the bridges over the freeways of Los Angeles?

 

 

Then there were the clothes.  Detail seems to have abounded in every direction.  A womangoes to an afternoon party or a baby shower or to church and wore a dress, pumps, gloves, hat, necklace, earrings…

 

Today, I often read of or see women wearing shorts and t-shirts to church.  It isn’t that I’m against t-shirts or shorts for that matter but it does seem that in our desire for comfort and ease that we’ve lost our love for beauty.  Even  velour jogging suit has a certain amount of “style” to it in comparison to old sweats and a baggy t-shirt… and is just as comfortable.

 

What would happen if clothing designers today took outfits like this…

 

 

And made them out of comfortable fabrics, with built-in “support” if the design needed it, and easily dressed up or down?

 

Why are jeans and t-shirts the preferred garments by most people?  I think it is because they are

• sturdy  (last a long time)
• versatile
• comfortable
• forgiving (look decent on most shapes)

 

In 1908, just 100 years ago, people didn’t look for short-cuts at the expense of beauty.  This is why a jean skirt (preferrably as faded as possible and possibly ‘torn’) and a ’structured’ (I prefer the word tailored… I don’t like feeling like I’m wearing a building) blouse are considered dressy in some circles. 

 

I’d love to see new designers come forward and meld the beauty and attention to detail of the past with our need for more casual and our desire for comfort.  I’d love to see people show up for baby showers wearing a dress or pant outfit that is just as comfortable as a pair of jeans or a denim skirt but has some beauty to it.

 

I’d love to see the return of hats.  Maybe I’d learn what kind I can actually wear.  Maybe I’d learn why they went ‘out’! 

 

I guess that I just think that our desire for a more casual look has grown from casual to flat out lazy.  Don’t get me wrong,  I am as bad as the next gal! I wear my Wal-mart Croc knock-offs almost exclusively… including to the memorial service I attended yesterday.   I havent’ made finding a decent pair of shoes a priority.  I need to do that. 

 

I’m working on a more “together” look.  I’m working on finding a way to quit seeking the fast route and look for the beautiful one.  Don’t you sometimes get tired of the same old, same old?

 

I’d love to go back to old-fashioned glamour.  It seems that today glamour has been replaced by glitz.  What I don’t want to see, however, is a return to clothing that requires more maintenance than the wearer.  That was defintely a problem in the past and I’d rather see people spend time with people than spend time on the nurturing of their wardrobe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here in the desert, fans run almost year-round.  Even in our cold frosty winters, we tend to keep a fan going for “white noise.”  The one in my bedroom is huge and sounds like a small engine airplane (why do I want to spell it aeroplane right now!).    It looks a lot like the picture below and we purchased it at Wal-mart. 

 

 

 

As you can see, it’s not very attractive.  It is also too strong for simple air moving.  When that thing blows, nothing stays in place for long.   In the living room, we keep your general all-purpose oscillating fan.  It’s functional but not very attractive.  So, when our old one died, we replaced that white plastic jobbie with a new one.  One that looks about 50 years old but has all the advantages of a new one.  (no cloth cord for one thing!). 

 

The first fan pictured is almost identical to what I purchased.  I like the sleekness of it.  the dark color looks good against my “Bellissima” yellow walls (the color of straw) and yet it isn’t just functional.  The hint of vintage charm adds to my decor now instead of detracting from it.

 

This is a fine example of what I mean by Vintimagery in decor.  I wouldn’t want the old fans with their wide open cages.  With all of the long hair floating around this house, I can imagine how easy it would be to lose a hank or two of hair if you weren’t careful when you walked by!  I like plastic cords.  I’m not one of those people who want to live plastic free.  I’m all for plastic.  WAHOO for plastic.  Especially around my electrical cords.

 

The old and the new…in perfect harmony I’d say!