Wardrobe Wednesday: Thrifty Forties

I love retro brands, but nothing can replace the thrift store.

Thrifting was how I got into vintage when I was a kid. Little did I know that the mid-nineties were vintage-thrift heaven. Nowadays, true vintage usually gets snatched up quickly by vintage sellers, or never winds up in the thrift store in the first place. Gone are the days of finding bunches of 1960s cast-offs for a couple bucks.

Still, it’s possible to create vintage-style looks from the thrift store, even if finding actual vintage pieces is rare. This outfit struck the just the right 1940’s notes without looking too costumey, and is comprised almost entirely of thrift store pieces.

Green and black 1940's style blouse and skirt
Blouse, skirt, knee socks (you can’t see them, they’re just socks), all thrifted.

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This Week’s Old-Fashioned Pleasures 3-17-18 – 3-23-18

These little things made me happy this week.

    1. Early spring flowers

      Snowdrops!
    2. Shamrock scarf

      Thrift store find! Ireland tourist scarf, probably from the 1970s.
    3. My continued obsession with Kalocsa embroidery
      I have fallen down a Hungarian needlework rabbit hole, and show no signs of coming out. I’ve been scouting vintage Hungarian embroidery to decorate for my upcoming wedding, and it’s so beautiful. If you, too, would like to become obsessed, here is a 10 minute documentary to get you started.

This little beauty came from Hungary last week.

The workmanship is exquisite–the back is almost identical.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Colcannon
St. Patrick’s Day is a hot mess in Chicago, so we stayed inside and ate colcannon instead of dodging drunk people.
I improvise my recipe, but this one from Carol at The 1940s Experiment is pretty close to what I do. I’ve started using a combination of cabbage and kale, and it is delicious. I served it with seitan bacon, and homemade soda bread.

Obviously, this is what I look like while making colcannon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What little things made your week?

Easy Grapefruit, 1940’s Style

Winter citrus is great.

This winter, I’ve been trying to dig deep into all the things that are special about winter. One of those is citrus fruit, which comes into season in Florida and California during January and February.

I’ve been enjoying Imperfect Produce, which rescues “ugly” fruits and vegetables that don’t fit grocery standards, and sells them cheaply to consumers. On impulse, I added a grapefruit to my weekly box of perfectly delicious, but sometimes weird-looking, produce.

This grapefruit was banished because of its discoloration.

 

Every couple of years, I get seduced by how pretty grapefruit is, and buy one. It’s not my favorite citrus, but it’s grown on me over the years.  I decided to try something I remembered seeing in several vintage cookbooks: Broiling it.

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This Week’s Old-Fashioned Pleasures, Week of 1-8-17

Leaving your house is overrated.

This week, I have seriously dug into hibernation, despite a weird almost-sixty-degree day yesterday. You can’t fool me, winter.

Currently, it’s blustering, and blowing, and barely over twenty degrees, and I am not regretting the fact that I haven’t left the apartment since…Tuesday? Did I go somewhere Tuesday?

No. I did not go anywhere Tuesday.

Here are my top old-timey nice things. Continue reading “This Week’s Old-Fashioned Pleasures, Week of 1-8-17” →

Poems of the Year: A Personal List for 2017

Poems are an old-fashioned pleasure, and simultaneously brand-new every time you read them.

Here are my favorites of the past year. They weren’t written in 2017. Some of them, I didn’t even read for the first time in 2017. But they were significant for 2017.

Poetry no longer plays a starring role in our cultural life, and I think that’s too bad. As JFK said, “When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.”

The corruption of power was definitely in evidence in 2017, here are some poems that, one way or another, gave a little cleansing.

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