Prints Charming Sunday: Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Lend Me Your Money

Welcome to this week's Prints Charming Sunday!




First, let me introduce my new blog look! ("Introduce"? That seems wrong. Whatever. You know what I'm shooting for here.) What do you think of the new layout and background? It's been bugging me for a long time, not having some sort of "look" around here. I know, it's hard to get used to it at first. And I'm first in line for "uptight type A's who hate change and getting used to things with new looks", but after literally (seriously, I'm literal here) weeks of searching for a new template that jives with me, I can say I really adore this one. I didn't want anything too girlie, pink or flowery that would make me puke, but something simple, a little mid-century modern but not overdone or cliche and in one of my current favorite color schemes and whammo! Aqua, orange and lime (sometimes olive) green. Hopefully it doesn't make any of you want to puke either (but if it does, grab the Pepto because it's staying.) So there we have it. One more project that was annoying me, done and done.

Onward and upward, compadres!

This week's vintage novelty print pick is one I'm especially loving on- it's this Vintage 50's Roman Coin Novelty Print Dress, currently available for a very decent 68 clams- not a lot of coin at all! (Get it? See the joke in there? Yeah whatever.) Dress is from Etsy seller Fabs Gabs.

XHSJ59U4VCST {Under Construction. Pay No Mind. Nothing to See Here.}

Just working on some code, screwing around with templates, trying to find the right background. So if you see some wonkiness or not-quite-right-ness around here, don't worry. It's just my schizophrenic blog trying to find it's new "face"!

XHSJ59U4VCST

Aqua Blue Heaven Friday: Coffee In The Morning, Coffee In The Evening, Coffee At Supper Time!

Welcome to Aqua Blue Heaven Friday! (Is it just me, or did this week take forEVer to get the hell over with already? It's just me? Great. Give me an IV drip of coffee please and most of you won't get hurt.)


... cheesy segue alert...





Speaking of coffee (there it is!), today's aqua-y goodness isn't vintage and in fact, combines my least favorite current trendy catch phrases: "eco-friendly" and, this one makes me hurl, "going green". Whatever happened to just not being a Hummer-driving asshole and just being a decent person, doing your part to keep this planet on the level? Do we really need to put a trendy spin on things that we should be doing every day anyway like recycling, upcycling and reusing in order to get folks to give a rat's ass about the world under their feet? Because that would make me sad. You know, assuming I was capable of feeling human emotions.

So along comes these super cute Homemade Reusable Coffee Sleeves on Etsy. File this under: "More crafty bitches on Etsy who make stuff that I wish I would've thought of or had half the talent to make something so crafty-ish! Maybe I'll steal that idea and make my own out of vintage fabric scraps! On second thought, who am I kidding, no I won't! But it's still a good idea for those of use who buy coffee, and I mean aLOT of coffee! What's that?! Am I am hopped up caffeine right now?!! What makes you say that?!!!"

Way-Out Wednesday: Love Me, Love My Hot Mess.

You know how much I love mocking vintage Spinnerin sweater patterns, right? But this Vintage Sweater Booklet is spawned from hell ... or at least just looks like it came from the unholy union of satan and the Duggar family. I have no words for this...





...Oh wait. I DO have words, and they are "oh my god, my eyes have permanently fused shut, what the hell is going on with this family?!" I realise this was from 1991. I realise the hokey title of the booklet is a hokey play on the hokey phrase "love me, love my mess", so popular in the 1980's as seen on wooden plaques hung in the kitchen. But this family. I mean...what the hell? Are they one of those western religious sects of Sister Wives and their dozens of creepy children of the corn? If they are, whatever, so be it. But I neither comprehend nor accept the extreme fugliness of this family.

Atomic Tuesday: Duck and Cover

You know what I always say? I always say: "A girl can never have too many shoes ... or be too prepared for a nuclear bomb." Well, no, I haven't ever said that. But I do actually plan on building my own old school, retro fallout shelter one day. Any good old fashioned mid century modern home needs one, as Brendan Fraser's 1999 smash hit "Blast from the Past" has taught us. (OK. So yeah, the movie was pretty much crap. But the clothes were fantastic!)


So in the spirit of bomb readiness, perhaps you'd enjoy a little light reading in the form of this Vintage 1950 Atomic Bombing: How to Protect Yourself Book.





I'm sure you've all seen this classic Duck and Cover video from 1951, but it's always retrotastic fun! Bert the Turtle will now drop a little knowledge on yo' asses:

Hey Jude

I'm gonna take a break today from my usual cheerful and upbeat rants here, and let you in on a great way to start out your year doing something "green", while doing something decent for your fellow mankind. I almost never make New Year's resolutions, because I tend to break them by the 2nd. But over the past few months we've started to do more volunteering in our community, or anywhere that we can help, and plan on carrying it on throughout the year. We've already volunteered serving Christmas dinner to retired & disabled veterans and have plans set up to clean up a stretch of highway this spring. But the most inspiring of all is how we witnessed the effects of good deed-doing in our 10 year old son who's currently working on an original Star Wars-themed board game so he can visit sick kids in the hospital and play with them. So believe me when I say your actions leave a bigger imprint on others than you can imagine!

I'm sure most of you have long since taken down your holiday decorations- unless you're some of my classy neighbors who are rockin' both Christmas and Valentine's Day decor at the same time- sometimes with a little Halloween still in there, no less. Awesome. But if you happen to have xmas cards still loitering around, don't throw them out! There's a way they can be upcycled and not become useless landfill fodder!

St. Jude's Ranch (the organisation that cares for abused, abandoned and neglected children of all races and faiths from child abuse) are currently accepting all your used all-occasion cards until February 28th. So they don't have to be Christmas cards. Have used birthday cards, Hanukkah cards, get well soon cards, congratulations on your divorce cards, etc. that you don't have the heart to chuck? Great. Those work too!

The children and volunteers participate in making new cards out of your used ones by removing the front, taking off the back that has the writing on it and attaching a new, blank back. The result is a brand new, upcycled card which they then sell in packs of 10 for $10.00.

If you'd like to donate your used cards to St. Jude's Ranch, send them to:

St. Jude's Ranch for Children
Recycled Card Program
100 St. Jude's Street
Boulder City, NV 89005

Prints Charming Sunday: Yodel-Lay-Hee-Hoo!

It's Prints Charming Sunday again! And to ease some of your minds, I have no plans to stop doing this particular theme so no worries, mates! (I said that in my head like I was Australian. You should try it. I royally suck at doing an Australian accent, by the way. It's borderline embarrassing. OK, it's flat-out embarrassing, who am I kidding?) Novelty prints are so awesomely fun, I don't think there's anyone who doesn't dig them and there's jillions to be found, ranging from the 1940's to the 1970's, so I don't think that theme could ever get stale and boring! (At least, not any time soon, right-o?)


Today's vintage novelty print pick is this perplexing yet really cool Vintage 40's Novelty Print Blouse.



The perplexing part is that the seller is calling it a beach print. Beach print?



I dunno. When I see it up close I see Swiss Alps mountain hiker/goat herder type dudes in lederhosen that Julie Andrews sang about on the Sound of Music. Am I seeing it all sorts of wrong? The print reminds me of everyone's favorite 1970's game Cliff Hangers, as seen on the Price is Right, where the mountain hiker yodels as he climbs the mountain and then falls of the edge of the cliff if you lose: