Alisya Blog learn

In a sense it’s been one of those week, not the full-blown kind that tends to peak in a complete and utter breakdown or late night Chinese food/cold pizza/vat of ice cream binge, but just sort of strange. As I mentioned yesterday , darling hubby and I had plans to go get our income taxes done, well no sooner had we got our shoes on as a massive wind and lighting storm blew through Toronto . {Bracing for a down pour in a 1941 edition of Life magazine. Found via the awesome pages of myvintagevogue’s Flickr stream .} As the afternoon temperatures climbed up to 25°C and the air become increasingly muggy, I remarked that I thought a storm was on the horizon, little did I know it would be one complete with winds up to 115km an hour! While the gusts shook our building something fierce, the whole ordeal was fairly short-lived and by the time the sun set for the day, it was merely raining, the air almost as still as a sleeping kitten. The sudden storm (and desire not to get swept right off our ...

Happy Saturday, dear vintage lovers! The temps here are climbing (24°C already!) and it’s shaping up to be a lovely day, well aside from the fact that assuming I can drag darling hubby away from work related tasks, we simply must go file our (2008) income taxes. I’ve never left it so close to the must-file-before date before (and leaving it for so long goes against every fiber in my punctual, generally on "top of things the moment they need to be done" body), but hubby was waiting for some documents that took their sweet time to arrive in the mail. As they've shown up, we can now proceed with the cross-you-fingers-and-pray task of filing one’s taxes and hoping to the moon and back that we don’t owe anything. I’ve got everything sorted, paper clipped (with pink clips ) and ready to head out the door for when we hoof it over to the tax ma. Still even being as prepared than a Girl Scout doesn’t make the task of doing your taxes any more glamorous. And glamorous is how one s...

The open road is an incredible place. At times lonesome, others crowded and frazzled. It calls and whispers, beckons and tempts, it is the beginning and the end. After a week of heavy grey skies I awoke at 7:30 this morning to a stream of pale sunlight. Nostalgic light, the kind that takes you back to childhood summers and makes you long to go running to the nearest beach – or to head out for a weekend trip somewhere, anywhere. But alas, I do not have a car and it’s far too soon to contemplate toe dipping – unless I want hypothermia. Instead I’ll live out my desire to heed the call of the road via Flickr images that invoke a very vintage feeling of driving, traveling and looking gorgeously well-dressed for the warmer months. {Hitting the open road, vintage style} 1. Crystal Cove 2005 , 2. round and round we go , 3. May 1954 Seventeen , 4. Vintage 1940's shoes and battered suitcase , 5. Nina , 6. 7.29.08 , 7. 1950s lemon yellow dress , 8. Bird watching , 9. March 1955 Vogue , 10. Th...

Before going any further with this post, I must preface it by saying that I am not an expert on matters of gardening! While I had the fun of helping my parents and grandparents around their gardens as a youngster, I’ve never planted or tended to a garden of my own (as I haven’t had the good fortune to live anywhere with a private yard as an adult yet). As I mentioned in yesterday’s post , the notion of making do or going without may soon become the de facto motto again – and if you ask me, not a moment too soon. Should you happen to have a yard of your own that you’re free to modify (aka, not one that’s governed by your landlord, if applicable) or access to a green space such as a community garden plot, I think that it’s high time us vintage lovers brought the idea of a home garden back into vogue. For you see, there was an age once long ago before it became all the rage to line your yard with rock gardens, mammoth stone barbeques, and outdoor furniture that costs as much as its under...

“Make do or go without”, chances are that at some point in your life you’ve heard some iteration of that old axiom, behind which lies a great deal of wisdom. In this age (or what was until very recently a prevalent and rampant age) of seemingly endless consumerism, it appears that the mantra to get by with, or reuse, what you already have is all too often forgotten. Today, the 22nd of April, is Earth Day , one brief day amongst 364 other siblings, in which people from around the world are encouraged to think about, and raise awareness of, issues that are affecting the health and wellbeing of our planet. Certainly one of which is the incredibly alarming rate at which garbage (trash) is building on our little rock of a planet. Thankfully, as lovers of antiques and vintage pieces, many of us are already taking a wonderful step in helping to reduce the amount of waste that makes its way into the landfill, simply by doing what we love! Every time you buy thrift, second hand or otherwise pre...

The utterly fantastic vintage, fashion, and interior design website Queens of Vintage , whose updates I joyfully receive everyday in my inbox, delivered some awesome news today: they’ve kicked off a vintage social networking site . For those of us who live, breath and wear vintage as much as humanly possible, the notion of mingling with like-minded souls couldn’t be more appealing. I’ve just joined up (under the user name “Jessica”, I think this is the first time in history I’ve ever been able to register for a site so early on that I was able to simply use my first name as my user name, giving me a whole other reason to madly love this new network), and am in the process of scoping things out. It looks like the QoV folks have designed this network really well; features include a forum (with budding user groups ), a photo section , blogs and member pages . The site is easy to navigate and I’m happy to report that forum already seems to be a buzz with lovely gals chatting about all ma...

When you hear the word gloves, what’s the first thing that pops into your mind? Michael Jackson, OJ, perhaps Ralphie and his mitts on a string in the movie Christmas Story? Or is your vision of hand socks a little more gentile, more ballroom dancing and First Communion style than pop culture icon? While gloves in some form or another have been in use since at least the time of the ancient Romans, they are little seen today when not being employed as a means of protecting or warming the hands – or as part of a very formal outfit such as a wedding or prom dress. Once though they were an important element of many people’s everyday wardrobe, a trend that continued well into the twenty first century, only declining as the over-all style of day-to-day clothing became more causal. (I’ve theorized – and my one of my elderly relatives concurs – that the wearing of gloves as common item of clothing went out of style only slightly before the everyday/commonplace wearing of hats did in the 1960s.)...

Spring is generally a short-lived love affair in Canada. Like a beautiful stranger it appears one day, just when you think your soul will deteriorate into ashes if you have to face another frighteningly cold morning, caressing your face with its tender warmth, showing you a sort of gentle beauty you had almost forgot existed in a world covered by eighteen inches of snow. But, like many a lover, no matter how much you give your heart to spring, it is gone as quickly as it came. You’ll see it again, but not for many months and by then, you will have had a rather lovely tryst with autumn and almost decided it was your favourite season. Yet while spring is in your life you should dress up for it, embracing the fact that you often have the option of wearing tights or short sleeves, a long skirt or one that barely nips at your knees. It is the season of subtly and grace, before the blistering heat of summer and between the frigid chill of winter. { Awaiting May Flowers created by yours tru...

{ American D9A Microphone, (gorgeous) photo by dh2 on Flickr} “Testing one, two, three...testing. Hi everyone, it’s a pleasure to be here, my name is Jessica, let me tell you a little bit about myself and this blog.” I never quite know what to say when I start a new blog or site, I’m not exactly a household name and I’m naturally shier than a feral kitten, but I like to take the approach that it’s best to hit the ground with both feet running (though according to the good folks over at Mythbusters , this doesn’t actually get you anywhere faster - but it is after all, a figure of speech). Technically I posted my first entry last night , but I thought I’d take a moment to chat about what led to this blog’s creation. In reality it wasn’t one singular event, but rather a cumulative lifelong adoration of the past. Of the days before my humble 80s birth, when people still counted hats as part of their daily ensemble and the idea of a woman leaving the house without her hair fully styled wa...

Late one Friday night when a good chunk of the world was either asleep or partying like was 1999 (weekends somehow mean even more during these rough times, so you have to rock it with all your heart), a blog devoted to one woman's never-ending love of all things vintage, rockabilly, retro and pin-up style was born. {Image via MsBlueSky on Flickr, corners nixed thanks to RoundPic } Weighing in at...well, websites are weightless, but let's just say 5.7 pounds (in honour of the best year for Chevies), Chronically Vintage came into the world with a smile on its face and an Andrews Sisters song in its heart. Once the blog's mother has grabbed a few winks, set some pin curls and replied her ruby red lipstick, she will definitely write a more thorough introduction post.