Good morning, lovelies!

 I am so honored to report that I have a guest post today over at The Girl with the Star Spangled Heart! Stephanie is on vacation this week at Disney, celebrating her birthday and having a fabulous time. The Girl with the Star Spangled Heart is one of my very favorite blogs so please do pop over and check her out. See the scarf tutorial here



 My post today is about how to make this adorable 1940's hair scarf, based on an original. After making this one, I had so much fun that I decided to crank out a few more with other scraps of fabric so you will probably be seeing me in these quite frequently this summer.

 Thank you again to Stephanie for inviting me to guest post on her fabulous blog. Have a wonderful time and a safe trip home, sweetie!!

 On Saturday, Pj had to work a little later than expected so my sister came over and we went to this enormous annual flea market. It was miserably hot so we didn't stay long but I did score some amazing vintage finds, even though we arrived 2 hours before closing time. The day was so hot that our feet burned if we stood in one place too long so I'm surprised that I spotted any good finds at all!


These pink 50's cat eyes were in pretty bad shape. They were bent all out of shape and very dirty. The 40's pair were also extremely dirty but in pretty good shape considering the age. I gave them both a good soap and water scrub down when I got home and ran the pink pair under a very hot tap and bent them gently and slowly back into shape. Olivia has tried to claim the pink pair for her own all week so they are now locked away where little hands can't break them. I think I will need to find a pair of pink sunglasses for her too!


I've been searching for a pair of crochet gloves for over a year but I haven't been able to find a pair that fit...story of my life! I found these buried in a box of scarves and vintage linens and fell in love.





 From the same seller as the sunglasses, I spotted this train case a mile away. Trying to not look too excited when I couldn't find a price tag, I took a casual peek and prepared myself to make a deal with her but she said "5 Bucks and it has the key"....needless to say, no dealing necessary! I adore the shape of this case and the lining and little purse make it extra special. Like many gorgeous train cases this thing smelled like it had been filled to the brim with cheap perfume so I set it outside for 2 days, open to let it air out then set a dish of baking soda inside and closed the lid. Works beautifully!

Train case lining matches this little bag

A gentleman and his wife had a wonderful booth filled with old children's books, watch pieces, tools and vintage home decor. I almost overlooked this little hat until I saw it peeking out from a hat box. It needs a new veil and maybe some millinery flowers but it's a beautiful base to start with. See the other side of the hat in the photo above.


Speaking of flea markets, check out this post on how to shop at a flea market by guest blogger, Liz from Zilredloh on The Girl With the Star Spangled Heart, all about how to shop at a flea market. Stephanie is on vacation this week so she has lots of fabulous guest posts scheduled, including a sewing tutorial by yours truly coming tomorrow!

It has been a long time since I've had a blog of the month so we're getting back of track this month with the beautiful vintage fashion blog, Princess Pin Curls from Melbourne Australia.

As a young girl, my Mum collected antique furniture and we would spend lots of time in Antique stores of a weekend. I think this led me to appreciate the quality and charm of old things, to seek out the story behind the object...and to love them. I also remember watching period dramas and a lot of BBC shows growing up shows like All Creatures Great and Small,  and I think that is where my obsession with 1940's began . I always dressed differently to my peers, at 17 I bought my first Laura Ashley dress with savings from my part time job. It was a blue and green floral wool flannel fabric, with puff sleeves and is full skirt went all the way down to my ankles.

I read a lot of vintage blogs and I love sharing in the fabulous finds that other people discover-and the stories behind them. The blogging community is a very inclusive environment and I wanted to reach out and communicate with other like minded gals. Another fellow Melbourne blogger gave me some advice and encouragement and I decided to take the plunge. I haven't looked back and I love my little Princess Pin Curls blog.

I look for clothes that have all the dainty details of vintage clothes- lovely buttons, archive/retro style  prints, beautiful cuts in the skirts and dresses that flatter my shape. I do try to find pieces that look authentic, but I'm not a purist. I am happy to accept the convenience of a modern fabric, if it is of good quality- sometimes they even wear and fall better on me than their yesteryear counterparts.

An olive green Fletcher Jones kilt from a thrift shop...I think I was 15 years old. I still love kilts and the Fletcher Jones brand. 
                                               What is on the top of your vintage wish list?

It would have to be a Dior 'new look' style evening dress.I love all of the dresses from his 1947-1950 collection. They really are the most beautiful garments I have ever seen. I am currently working on trimming my waist down a bit-so that this style will suit me. Fingers crossed.

Thursday date night seemed like any other date night- a dinner and a movie plan. I wore this dress I made about 2 years ago from this Vintage Vogue pattern5 and have never worn until now. At first, I loved the deco print but later decided that it was a crazy choice. I finally tried it on today and fell back in love with it. Pj assures me that it's a great dress and I got a few compliments from others also. This pattern is an amazing style for full figured ladies. It drapes beautifully, accentuates the good curves and conceals the less-than-appealing ones, like my mom belly. I made the same dress in army green, which you can see here.

We were in a rush to leave  and I whipped up a quick and easy hairstyle around one of my new hats. I thought I'd do a little how-to of this simple style.

 During dinner at our favorite sushi place, we started talking about Geocaching. Geocaching is a really neat activity. You look up Geocaching sites in your area on the website and use a gps to locate the cache. The cache is usually a small container filled with little trinkets and a log of who found the cache. You can remove an item from the cache but if you do, you have to add something to it. Sign the log and return the cache to its original location so the next adventurer can find it. We just got a new smart phone with a geocaching app for finding local, caches. It has a map, a compass and a gps locator. Even though I was in heels and all dolled up, I really wanted to go find at least one cache. I have always been a tree-climbing, digging-in-the-dirt kind of girl. There were several right by the restaurant so off we went to a local cemetery for our first cache.

It's right over there!

Pj found it in the bushes

Signing the log

the treasure

After our first, we went on to the next- supposedly at a nearby commuter parking lot but we turned over rocks, Pj climbed a fence and still no cache to be found. It may have been taken or hidden too well. The description of this cache said that this location was chosen because they wanted to show us the beauty of places that we don't think are beautiful. Although we never found the cache, we stopped for a moment to look up and see the view of the sky, the highway and a sight that we have both overlooked thousands of times before.


The 3rd cache was located at a small business. We arrived in the parking lot, walked around to the business, which was closed and nearly gave up when I noticed this drain spout, which was the only place to hide a small box. I crawled down to peek inside and found this tiny box stuck to the bottom of the spout with a magnet. It contained the log book, 7 cents and an earring. With no pencil, we were unable to sign the log so we will return later to make note of our find. There are caches all over the world and maybe in your own back yard!

On Friday, my wonderful husband took a day off work to drive us around and my momma watched the kid so Daffny and I could shop all day. Pj didn't think he would enjoy playing chauffer but he and Daffny really enjoyed talking about New York, beer and how much fun he would have with her husband. Although Pj isn't into vintage, I have a sneaking suspicion that he even enjoyed the shopping aspect.

Breakfast at Steak n Shake!

We began shopping at Brenda Sue's in Warrenton, Missouri. Brenda Sue's is one of my favorite vintage shops and I knew she would have exactly what Daffny was looking for. I found a red purse, which has been on my list for two years as well as a pair of mustard gloves. Pj found a pair of goggles for his Dr. Horrible halloween costume.



For lunch, we went to Chick-fil-A which is like...the best fast food place ever!! Daffny doesn't have one near her house so we had to make a stop while she was in town.



 We ventured out to the St Charles antique mall and shopped till the store closed. Here are some of my goodies....

new brooches. The "Mother" brooch is a locket with 6 spaces for pics of my family. The lucite artist palette reminded me of my momma, who is an artist

new brown hat, black vintage rain boots and black peeptoe pumps

much desired mustard gloves and sweet pale blue gloves from Brenda Sue's. The palm brush is a vintage scrubby brush for cleaning up messy little boys

We picked up the kids from mom's house and did a little shoot in the yard. We were losing light quickly so we did the best we could do with little sunlight. I adore this picture of her!

See Daffy's  impression of our day 1 trip on her blog, A Vintage Nerd

Sunday was Daffny's last full day in St Louis. We began the day with brunch at Magpie's on Main Street, then walked along Main Street for a while so Daffny could enjoy some of the best parts of my hometown. She laughed and said it's like walking through my blog!


We took some pretty pictures with me behind the camera most of the time.

 Check out her 40's celluloid brooch, which reads "Dicie". Does anyone have any idea what the phrase means? We thought "Dicie" as in "the weather will be getting pretty dicie" but not sure how that has anything to do with it. The seller told her it was a 40's slang word meaning "cool" but we have no idea!

We stopped at the sweet shop for candy for her babies and chocolate covered cherries for us mamas.


After main street, we ventured all the way out to Jefferson Barracks to go to the World War II Weekend. We got a late start and made a wrong turn and ended up at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. I have never been to the cemetery before but I'm really glad that we made a wrong turn. While the kids napped in the van, Pj, Daffny and I stepped out for a very respectful moment of silence, all of us nearly moved to tears and very thankful for all of the lives sacrificed in the name of our freedom and protection.


 The graves here date from 1826 to present day. The cemetery covers 331 acres, a sea of white headstones. I couldn't help but imagine each stone being a a person standing there, frozen in time.  Many wives were buried here next to their husbands. Pj's great Aunt Ester, who ran a military hospital during WWII, rests at the cemetery. The most difficult part for Bunny and I were to see the children and the unknown soldiers. I really cannot put those feelings into words. We spent a long time standing there, thinking of the people who served bravely and honorably for us. Pj said "If anyone ever has trouble being proud to be an American, they need to come here."

                       It was a comfort to see a beautiful deer grazing in the peaceful cemetery.

 After a while, we left the cemetery and found our way to the park hosting the WWII event but apparently, they wrapped it up early due to rain and we missed it. We were lucky enough to get to chat with one lone soldier, protecting a tank until his fellow German soldiers returned with a tow truck and burgers. This is Chuck, an artist and newbie reenactor. He showed us some pics of the weekend and I think he persuaded Pj to join in the fun next year. Sure, he plays the enemy but he's a nice fella so we won't hold it against him. We will return next year, for sure and I believe that Daffny and her hubby will be going to a big WWII event in Pennsylvania.
Pj and the kids went to bed and it was just us girls. I helped Daffny set her hair in her new pillow rollers and we enjoyed pina coladas, potato chips and watched Down with Love till we couldn't keep our eyes open anymore.


 In the morning, Daffny flew back to her family and home in New York. We are already planning a trip to visit her in The Big Apple. We had a wonderful weekend and silly as it sounds, I think it was a life changing weekend for all of us. We had a lot of long talks about family, friends, marriage and children and life as a stay at home mom. All of us made life-long friendships with each other. It's funny how a silly thing like vintage fashion and blogs can bring people together. We still chat nearly every day and our babies love to Skype with each other. I hope for many more weekend visits with her

                   Daffny                                                                                              Brittany
       white eyelet lace blouse-thrifted                                                  vintage white blouse-estate sale
           blue cardigan-thrifted                                                      1940's date maker cardigan-knitted by me
navy trousers-handmade by Brittany                                         1940's veiled hat-The Vintage Haberdashery
1940's cherry straw hat-Sydney's Vintage Clothing                                           navy skirt-thrifted
          1940's "dicie" brooch-etsy                                                              40's repro wedges-Aris Allen