How To: Go 1940s on a budget

As you know, I love absolutely all kinds of vintage, but I do not like to spend a lot of time getting ready in the morning or the night before, which is why I spend much of my time wearing the practical, straight-haired vintage of later eras. Lately though I have been feeling a certain nostalgia for older styles (probably brought on by my watching of the BBC series The Hour) and so today I decided to indulge myself - yet due to my budget I don't actually own any 40s vintage, but it is still possible to achieve the look.

Here is an example of how you can ( "make-do and mend" ) using your thrifting skills, to transform yourself into a 40s goddess for a day...

For the outfit you will need:

1) A short-sleeved button down blouse. It doesn't really matter too much what colour or pattern. You can often find a lot of white or creme coloured 'granny' blouses in op-shops - which is what mine is. And remember, the women of the 40s made their clothing out of all sorts of old scraps and materials like curtains and hessian sacks!

2) A high waisted, below the knee length, A-line skirt. Mine is a 1970s A-line skirt which I found in an op-shop - (70s skirts are still fairly easy and cheap to come by) or any kind of A-line skirt, even a rap around will do.

3) A neat fitting, thrifted cardigan.

 For the accessories you will need:

Jewellery: A thrifted necklace such as fake pearls or beads - or an old brooch to jazz up the outfit.

Shoes: Espadrilles or another kind of low wedge heel will do well. If you don't have these try using some basic lace-up sneakers worn with ankle socks instead.

Here is my version of the look

Finally

For the make-up & hair:

Make-up: (This is the fun part!) - sit yourself in front of a mirror and paint some black eye liner above your lashes with small cat-eye flicks at the ends. Then add some blush and a dash of red lipstick. If you have a compact mirror, gaze at yourself in the compact mirror while you apply for effect!

 

Hair: I'll be honest - I'm the worst hairdresser in the world. I have very straight, fine hair which never seems to do what I want it to do when it comes to curls. This, paired with the fact that I don't seem to possess any form of patience makes things difficult.

If you can do victory rolls by all means go for it because you're a star and they look amazing. If you're lacking the many hours sitting in front of a mirror that is needed in order to become a proper retro pin-up girl, there is an easy & quick style to start with:

Part your hair in the middle and pull the top front section of hair including the hair that sits above your ear, towards the front (one side at a time). Twist it in towards your parting leaving a looser section of hair up the top (like you would if you were making a pouff) so that it sits up high as you fold the long twist of hair backwards and behind. Pin this twist behind the pouff of hair sitting up  with two bobby pins & spray lightly. You can also curl the ends of your hair with a curling iron if you so wish.

*If you are confused by my lack of pictures, this style is sort of like the beginning of a victory roll, without the roll, so watching an online tutorial for these might help!!*

And voila!

Practically perfect pudding

Just wanted to stop by to wish of of you a very lovely Christmas and to share with you my "Practically perfect in every way" vegan pudding recipe (my mum came up with the name haha) because it is perfect.

Anyway, I kinda celebrated Christmas two days early with my family because they were all going away, and so today is being spent very quietly, sleeping in and reading ( I was given the book of Marilyn Monroe's writings Fragments by my friend - Thank you again Steph! - and it is my favourite gift of all. Can't stop reading it).

So here is the recipe - it was adapted from an old and ancient (well 60s/70s?) recipe by Margaret Fulton.

It sounds like a lot of work but it's actually surprisingly easy! 

Practically Perfect In Every Way Vegan Christmas Pudding

(makes a large pudding you can halve or quarter recipe if you want a small pudding like mine)

Ingredients:

810g worth of sultanas, raisins, currants mixed together

3 tbsp rum or brandy

250g vegan margarine (Earth Balance, Nuttelex)

250g brown sugar

grated rind of 1 orange & 1 lemon

4 eggs worth of egg replacer mix (Organ egg replacer or Ener-G egg replacer)

1 cup sifted plain flour

1 cup fresh breadcrumbs

1 cup almond or nut meal (or you can use another cup of breadcrumbs)

1/2 tsp each of salt, mixed spice, nutmeg, ground ginger, cinnamon and bicarbonate soda
extra rum or brandy

Method:

1. The day before place dried fruit in bowl, sprinkle with rum/brandy and leave overnight
2. The next day cream margarine (using mixer) fruit rinds and sugar until light and fluffy
3. Mix together 4 eggs worth of egg replacer powder with water and add to the sugar mix a little at a time.
4. Mix all dry ingredients together in another bowl
5. Stir the fruit and dry ingredients into the sugar mix alternatively, a little at a time until it is all mixed in.
6. Put mix into a large 6 cup pudding basin that has a circle of greaseproof paper covering the very base of the bowl. Cover with another round of greaseproof paper (on top of pudding basin).
7. Then cover the top of the basin in a double layer of tin foil or a pudding cloth and tie it firmly around the rim of the basin with string.
8. Steam the pudding in a saucepan of boiling water (with water reaching halfway up the basin) covered with a lid for 6 hours. Add more boiling water as necessary.

Serve hot or reheat the pudding on the day by re boiling it until hot or placing it on a plate and warming in the microwave.

Served with vanilla soy ice cream.

 Merry Christmas

Oh! Amazing

K-tel Record Selector commercial

What an amazing concept. Probably the beginning of technological laziness.

One Year : (I heart weird people)

Hello there. It's been one year since I started this blog.

I feel kind of speechless and shy *thought bubble: overwhelmed*

Just wanted to say "thankyou for reading the blog" and "here are some pictures of some awesome weird people/characters (not weird in a negative sense, but weird in a cool, interesting, different, funny sense!) who I admire"...

I don't actually know if this Kaiser Wilhelm II fellow was 'weird' in his day...but considering he's dressed as a Musketeer he gets my thumbs up.

Neil from The Young Ones

One of my favourite artists and all round amazing lady, Frida Kahlo

Molly Ringwald as Andie in Pretty In Pink

Enid, Ghost World

Be yourself and stay awesome, cause I know you are ;)

GPOY ~ with turban

 I only just this very minute learnt what "GPOY" means.

 I'm such a bad Gen Y. I think I would have been cool in the 60s/70s though, but now I'm just out of touch mannnn.

Anyway I thought I'd name this post after my new found vocabulary (haha) since it is - gratuitous pictures of myself with the added addition of a turban and stuff.

I got home today and was feeling a bit grey so I thought wearing this bright pink turban would cheer me up a bit - and it did! I guess this outfit is channelling 40s 50s and 60s. All of it is thrifted.

Speaking of stripes and jeans, I also love these guys from the 70s! Stripes are, apparently, timeless.

The Ramones

Hope you're having a nice week.

A century (almost) in shoes

I've come to realise what my guilty pleasure in life is:

I really, really enjoy browsing through vintage shoes, whether it's in a market or online I don't really mind.

I think I've always been enchanted by shoes from a very young age, particularly high heels (somewhat ironically since I can't really walk in high heels due to a foot ailment I had as a child). I used to love trying on grown-ups high heels when I was a kid. Then there was the love affair with those little pink plastic princess shoes (you know the ones with the little feathers on the toes that click click around when you walk) that seem to be essential to every four year old girl's life.

I think it's obvious to most people who know me well...or read my blog!...that I love all vintage fashion, but there is something about the design qualities of shoes (their sleekness, shininess, glamour) that seems - when it's done well - to mimic perfection.

A couple of years ago I was browsing through a book shop and I came across a book called Vintage Shoes by Caroline Cox that was basically a pictorial history of shoes, and wow, I fell in love with it. Every decade of shoe history was covered with big colour photographs and biographies of the shoe designers. I suppose everyone who is interested in the elements of design must have one particular object that they favour like houses, or cars, or chairs? Mine I think, must be shoes.

The funny thing is though that despite this visual love for shoes, I don't own many pairs of shoes myself. I think this is because I am very very fussy when it comes to the shoes I wear, I like them to be sleek, easy to walk in and flattering on my feet, and because vintage shoes are often so pricey and hard to come by in large shoe sizes.

The good thing is, I still find pleasure in looking at shoes, even if I can't own them.

Here are some amazing women's shoes (perhaps I will do a post of men's shoes in another post one day) from different decades that I have fallen in love with via etsy.

Just click on the era to go to the source.

Victorian

I am a big fan of Victorian lace-ups. Always thought they looked comfy (but I doubt anyone could fit into them now because their feet were so small!)

1900s

Aren't these just beautiful?

1920s

1930s

1940s-50s

To me, 40s shoes are just the most glamorous...and the 70s tend to mimic the 40s when it comes to shoes so I love them both of course!

1960s

1970s

These are BIBA!! :O

1980s

Love these! Very Molly Ringwald in Pretty In Pink!

1990s...

Well most of us were there weren't we? And to be honest I'm not a huge fan of those chunky Spice Girl platforms....(I'm sure there were some decent shoes in the 90s?) but I'll leave it to your imagination.

What is your favourite shoe era?