Flower garden headband

I made this pretty headband the other night. I have had this plain metal headband for years and I had these very pretty Czechoslovakian glass beads hanging around forever. One day I got the idea to attach these beautiful beads onto the headband. Each piece is a separate component, for example the flower center is a tiny seed bead, the flower is also a separate piece and so are all of the different leaves and colored petals. I took very fine gauge wire and wired each little glass bead on separately. It now looks like a miniature flower garden to wear upon my head!

Handmade all natural vapor rub

A few days ago I ended up getting that cruddy cold that has been going around. Yesterday I woke up and could not breathe so I decided to make my own vapor rub. I would just go out and buy Vicks Vapor Rub but I really do not care for petroleum based products plus making your own is super easy and fun. All you need is a container, virgin coconut oil, essential oils of eucalyptus and peppermint.

I used a small antique Noxzema jar (it looks like a Vicks jar). Wash container plus lid very well then boil them to sanitize. A glass container works best for this home remedy because it can withstand the essential oils. If using plastic make sure it is PET plastic, it is one of the only plastics that can hold up to essential oils, I know because I used to be a project manager for a cosmetic manufacturing firm that also made handmade beauty preparations.

For my base I used virgin coconut oil. I buy it by the 1/2 gallon and use it for cooking/baking (has a slight coconut flavor), in beauty preparations, and home remedies. Take about 4 tablespoons of virgin coconut oil and spoon it into a jar. Virgin coconut oil is semi soft when left at room temperature (except in winter when it is cold it can get quite hard) its melting point is body temperature. The only time I ever refrigerate it is in August when it gets warm here. Virgin coconut oil has a shelf life of about one year. Next add your essential oils, 30 drops of eucalyptus and 20 drops of peppermint. Stir them in with a chopstick or any other non metal utensil (preferably something that you do not use to eat with, I have one designated chopstick just for stirring essential oils, the other chopstick I use to tie my hair back with when it is long). Do not fill your product all the way up to the metal lid (do not let anything that contains essential oils get into contact with metal of any kinds it make it go bad, smell funny, and makes the metal rusty eventually).

Apply your home made vapor rub onto chest, do not place in nostrils or under nose or on face. Wear loose clothing or be aware that the vapor rub is an oil base and may stain clothing.

The owner of this blog is in no way making any medical claims what so ever and the above vapor rub is merely used as a beauty preparation only.

On the hunt for vintage treasures

1940's Princess Coat 

Great buttons on the belt in the back

Close up of button

Pink Aurora Borealis Necklace

My sister in law and I went treasure hunting today and I came home with a couple of things. First we went to an open air flea market just down the street from where I live, while I was there I picked up the 1940's
spring green - wool belted - Princess Coat, the inside is all lined with a beige pink, rayon crepe. I have been wanting one of these forever! Then we went to Goodwill where I got this really pretty double strand pink Aurora Borealis necklace. Then we had some lunch over at Clay's Smoke House BBQ where I had the catfish. The bonus for today: We had sunshine all day! Also sorry for the wild pics of my super stuffed apartment. I had my pics all nicely cropped on Picasa but for some reason they would not come over to my blogged cropped no matter what I did.

Outfit for today

Even though it is technically spring here it is still very cold and wet. I can not wait for some sun, so I can wear my spring and summer dresses. It rains for about 10 months here (if we are lucky) and sometimes it rains almost all year and our summer will end up being about 3 weeks rain free in August. Life goes on and in the mean time we still wear wool skirts, high boots, and sweaters.

My outfit:

1940's blue sweater layered over basic brown v-neck ribbed sweater (about 10 years old) - 1940's sweater was gifted to me from my sister in law about 15 years ago it used to be hers. Brown sweater came from a charity shop.

Tin bird pin - Gift from co-worker (she just got back from the Gouguin art exhibit up in Seattle, she got me this pin and a post card of a Gouguin painting).

Plaid skirt - Charity shop.

Tights - Forever 21.

High leather boots - Hattie's Vintage

Close up of my little tin bird pin made in Japan - so cute - I love  bird motifs!

I guess I really fit in here in Portland because I put a bird on it! Anybody who has seen the "Put a bird on it" Portlandia episode will know what I am talking about here.

My favorite corner in my apartment

My sweet little plant area

My favorite corner in my little apartment is my plant area by my kitchen window. All the plants I have were given to me by people (in little disposable pots) except the itty bitty jade plant which I found on my patio (when I lived at a different apartment) it was actually just a tiny piece of a jade plant, I think a bird dropped it on my patio because I asked the lady that lived directly above me if she had a jade plant (thinking a piece had been broken off) she said no. My mom who has an incredible green thumb told me to just stick it in some dirt and keep the dirt moist at all times, so I did that and low and behold it took root and has been alive ever since and that has been 4 years ago!

I have never been one to have a green thumb (usually all the plants I have just die) but for the last few years for some reason I guess I seem to be doing pretty good. Since all of these plants made it I started collecting vintage containers to put them in (except the jade the plant that is the closest by the plate in this picture it had been planted in this new pot ever since "I stuck it in some dirt 4 years ago!"). However the jade plant needs a new pot soon because it is out growing this one. My mom gave me the vintage plant stand several years ago back when no plants I ever had wanted to live. I almost gave up on the stand and the plants until people (and some times the birds even) started giving me plants and that was when they started living instead of dying!

Next I am going to try getting some little potted herbs because I do love the idea of growing edible plants and having them right on hand for cooking in the kitchen.

Cider vinegar and rosemary hair rinse

I am quite fond of old-time home remedies, one of my favorites is the cider vinegar and rosemary hair rinse. When I was growing up my mom used to do cider vinegar rinses on my hair (it smoothed the cuticle of the hair which gave it lots of shine plus it removed build up of shampoo, conditioner and/or products). I never had a haircut until I was 11 years old and by then my hair was knee length. My hair was always very fine, straight and it tangled real easily so my mom always took care of my hair for me which included braiding it every morning.

I like to do a cider vinegar hair rinse on my hair every now and then but I like to add a sprig of rosemary to it (it adds a fresh herbal fragrance). Herbalists say that rosemary is good for scalp circulation and makes the  hair glossy.

Just take 2 cups of water and and 1/8 of a cup of cider vinegar plus one sprig of rosemary, let it steep in a bowl overnight at room temperature. In the morning take out the sprig of rosemary. Shampoo and condition your hair like normal then do the vinegar hair rinse, finish by rinsing a few times with plain warm water.

Outfit Post

Here is my outfit for today:

Earrings - Handmade by me
1960s sweater -Thrifted
Black suede belt -Target (years ago)
Silvery gold pencil skirt - The Dig (used & vintage clothing store now closed)
Black tights - DKNY (8 years old - personal testimony as to how long they last and how good they are. They are well worth the money!)
Two tone black and silvery gold T strap heels - Thrifted

Writing in my journal

I love to journal. I have been writing in journals for most of my life. My favorite journals are the pretty leather bound ones.

Plus I have a beautiful fountain pen that I love writing with that I bought at oblationpapers which is one of the greatest stores ever for stationary, notebooks, paper supplies, and pens. They do all of their printing on an antique printing press. You can even watch them while they print when shopping in the store.

I like to add pictures that I cut out from magazines and decoupage them into my journals.

Sometimes I will find little images off of the Internet and I will cut those out and I will decoupage them in also.

And sometimes I will even do a little bit of water color painting.

It is a lot of fun put your own personal decorating touch along with writing inside of your journals.

My Easter Outfit

Here is my Easter Outfit that I wore to church today. So far this seems to be the best corner in my apartment for shooting a photo. Hey, at least it was better than the dreadful door that I had as my back drop for the last outfit shot I posted.

Here is the breakdown of my outfit:

Black 1940's light weight wool jacket - Portland Antique Show
Earrings - roadside stand in Arizona on the way to the Grand Canyon years ago
Silk flower corsage - Little White Steeple Antique in Rockaway Beach in Oregon
Sheer pale pink blouse - Red Light, Portland Oregon
Pink velvet 1950's circle skirt - Bombshell Vintage, Portland Oregon
White lace petticoat - Antique Mall in Lincoln City on the Oregon Coast.
Black thigh high stockings - Lille Boutique, Portland Oregon
Kitten heel shoes - Meyer & Frank long before it was Macy's

Fashion inspiration from the movie Chocolat!

Chocolat is one of my favorite movies plus it takes place at Easter time. I am sure you have all seen it and know the plot: A young mother (Vianne) and her six year old daughter (Anouk) arrive at the small fictional, repressed village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes in the winter of 1959. Vianne opens up a small chacolaterie right at Lent much to the chagrin of the town mayor. In the beginning she does not fit in with the towns people but yet she is optimistic about her new shop. However almost magically her chocolates begin to change the lives of the people in the small quiet town of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes.

This blog post is to highlight the fashion of Vianne, I love the costumes they had her wear for this movie. They are colorful, beautiful, and timeless.

How about a beautiful red wool hooded cape.

The red and robins egg blue color combo is the bees knees!

Details such as a colorful head scarf.

Love the shawl.

  These last three were actual costumes that Vianne wore in the movie.

Beautiful maroon dress with dark red suede pumps.

This is a bright and bold combination, I love it!

Here is a sweet combination for a warm spring day.

Instead of an Easter basket how about an Easter cone!

I made these adorable Easter cones for the ladies I work with in the office. They were super easy and fun to make.

Just roll up colored construction paper into a cone shape and glue it together.

The pictures on the cones came out of last March/April's issue of Reminisce Magazine and they are all vintage Easter themed post cards except the pink cone which has an old add from 1948 for Paas Easter Egg Dye.

Next find little pictures and/or templates to download of festive Easter/spring images from online (I found butterfly's which I cut out and a template of a small egg shape which I used with contrasting colors of construction paper).

Take glue (I used Elmer's mixed with some water) and decoupage' all images onto the cones, then mix some glitter (I used very fine fairy dust glitter) with your glue and water combo and paint over the entire cone with it.

After your cone dries use a hole punch to punch a hole on either side of the cone and get a ribbon for each cone and knot it on the inside. (The pink ribbon I got says Je t'aime  which means love in French because I LOVE all things French).

The cones can then be filled with flowers, or chocolates, or tiny gifts etc... If you fill the cones with flowers be sure to trim the stems and wrap them in very damp paper towels with plastic wrap rubber banded around them and then foil to keep the flowers fresh and the cone dry.

These delightful little cones can be made for other holidays too! I personally think that some Halloween cones all done in black in orange would be grand!

A sweet little gift for a very kind friend.

 I have been having a little bit of a rough patch in my life for the last couple of months. I have a wonderful friend who has been there for me with her encouragement and kindness.

To show my gratitude I came up with this little gift:

I found this cute mug with violets on it at an antique mall. Then I went and got a pretty little viola flower and planted it. Viola's like well drained soil so I first put some small pebbles in the bottom of the mug.

I presented her with my gift last weekend and she loved it.

I love making handmade gifts, they are fun to make and a delight to give!

Outfit Post

Now that I have a camera I can do outfit posts finally! (I have been blogging since 2008 without a camera of my own, can you believe it?) So basically I have been just kind of experimenting with the camera and a tripod in my apartment. I have no idea why I waited so long to get a camera.

Here is my outfit for today:

I really need to find a more flattering corner in my apartment but that is all apart of the experimentation process right? I also had to alter the color a bit because my door has some funky marks on it so I had to darken it some. 

Anyways about what I am wearing:

Vintage cardigan - The Oregon Country Fair (which just proves you can find vintage even in the strangest places!)

1940's Jersey blend dress - The Portland Antique Show

Boots - fluevog      I am a boot wearer, since it rains here about 10 months out of the year I live in them. Especially because I do not own a car, so I am always walking or riding the bus.