Blue Monday: Coffee is in Fashion

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.
To see more offerings, or to participate yourself, please head on over to her blog.

Confession time - I have a bad habit.  OK, I've got TONS of bad habits, but this one is totally shameful. And here it is: I love snapping surreptitious photos of people in Starbucks.  There, I've said it.  I'm a Secret Starbucks Snapper, and I dig it.  And I don't intend to stop, either.

Of course, as a caffeine addict, I love Starbucks and go there often.  And I've begun to derive a great deal of entertainment from seeing how the people IN the various establishments put themselves together.  Starbucks fashion.  It can be really fascinating.  As an example, a few weeks ago in one of our local places I grabbed this snap of several female patrons in various shades of BLUE:

(Click on image to enlarge.)

Doesn't the young lady in the central spot look interesting?  I love the way she's combined her simple mini-dress with the patterned leggings. If I were twenty years younger (or ten pounds thinner), I'd definitely try something like that.  And I'm totally in love with the striped T-shirt and red shoes on the right. Not so sure about the outfit on the left of the shot - I'd take the boots if they were given to me, but I'm not really crazy about the rest of the look. (Maybe if I were twenty years younger and ten pounds thinner?)

Vintage Thingie Thursday: Costume Critters

Vintage Thingie Thursday is hosted by Suzanne at Coloradolady, and as she says, "Thursday is the day to showcase your vintage treasures and to share your special things with everyone." Please visit her blog to find out more about VTT or to participate yourself.

I don't usually wear much costume jewelry, so it's a little odd that I've ended up with a fairly large collection of the stuff. Most of it was given to me by family or friends, and I've just hung on to it over the years. Today (for my first Vintage Thingie Thursday post in many months), I thought I'd share a few of my "critter" pins. Some of these are just about the only pieces in the collection that I actually do wear from time to time. The butterfly at the top left of the photo is a stick pin and is unmarked. The one on the right, with the two pearls, is marked Winard on the back. Each one is around a half-inch wide, and both date probably from the late 1950s to early 1960s. (Click on photos to enlarge.)


I think these little enameled honeybee scatter pins are probably the oldest pieces in the crowd. They date from the late 1940s or early 1950s and are unmarked, as far as I can make out. They're each less than a half inch wide, and I used to wear them all in a bunch on sweaters.


This blue and white flying bug is another unmarked pin. It's about an inch and a quarter wide, from wing tip to wing tip. It probably dates from the late 1950s.

I do wear these frogs occasionally. The larger one is almost two inches long, from his nose, to the the tip of his toe. They date from (I believe) around 1960, and they're marked Denicola.

I think this owl is my favorite of this group. He's a little over an inch tall, and he's marked Coro on the back. He was a gift from my Aunt Linnie. She worked most of her life as a costume jewelry buyer for several large department stores, and a lot of my collection has come down to me from her. I don't know how old this one is, but I know I used to wear it when I was in elementary school, so he's getting pretty ancient now!

Vintage Thingies Thursday: Children's Patterns

Although I haven't done any sewing in quite a while, I love to collect old patterns. For a while, back in the '80s and '90s you could find really interesting, really old printed patterns in thrift shops and yard sales for just pennies each. That's all changed now – some of the same patterns I scooped up for ten cents a piece are going for ten bucks or more on eBay right now. Every now and then the hubby starts making noises about the money we could be making by unloading my "collection," but (fortunately) the patterns are all hidden away in a storage bin at the moment – too much trouble to dig them out.

Some of my favorites are the patterns for children's clothes. These are a few examples from several different periods. It's interesting to see how kids' fashion has changed in the last century or so, and how the look of the patterns themselves has changed, too. Sorry about the quality of the photos – they were all taken several years ago, before I packed everything up for storage. (Click on the photos to enlarge.)

Most of these early patterns aren't dated, but these are two of the oldest; probably from the post-WWI, early 1920s period.

More from the 1920s, for little flappers.

I love these little hat patterns, also probably from the 1920s.

These look like they're probably from the 1930s.
Very Shirley Temple, don't you think?

A couple from the late 1940s or the 1950s, with aprons or pinafores. I would have worn something like this to school everyday.

Another one from the 1950s, very fancy. I remember my mother making me something very similar for a school play when I was about six or seven. But I came down with tonsillitis and never got to wear it. Bummer.

And finally, a couple from the 1960s or early '70s. Even the kiddies were mod.

Vintage Thingies Thursday is hosted by Suzanne at Coloradolady, and as she says, "Thursday is the day to showcase your vintage treasures and to share your special things with everyone." Please visit her blog to find out more about VTT or to participate yourself.

The State of the Wardrobe

Last night the President gave his first big speech since the election – the "not-the-State-of-the-Union-Address." And it was, by most accounts, a huge success. I watched. I had gotten into the habit of ignoring presidential addresses on nationwide TV. I mean – did anybody really watch those excruciating sessions with W? Even his own party faithful must have found those painful. I think President Obama's maiden voyage was pretty encouraging – he sounded very much in charge, made a lot of good points, and also a lot of promises that are going to be difficult to live up to. Well, we'll see what happens there. But the man can certainly make a speech, can't he?

And he looked a little older, I thought. A little more gray sprinkled in with the darker hair. A few more lines on the face already. The office does age the man, they say. All that responsibility. His country depending on him for answers to all their problems. Not to mention all those secret CIA documents about the extra-terrestrials living amongst us! I'm sure that would turn anybody gray. Well, anybody but Ronald Reagan.

OK, enough of that. Let's get to the really interesting stuff. What was Michelle wearing?

Michelle Obama is beginning to drive me crazy. She's a very attractive young woman, and we all know she's got a nice, well-maintained, athletic body, with great arms. But does she have to wear sleeveless dresses ALL the time? Even in the dead of winter? I keep thinking of my mother's invaluable maxim that to be well-dressed is to be appropriately dressed.

Also, all her outfits seem to look so much alike – I'm almost certain I've seen last night's dress before, and I haven't even been paying really close attention. Now I'm not eager for the second coming of Nancy Reagan or anything like that. And we're all glad she's frugal and prefers ordinary, unfussy fashion. But Michelle, you're the President's wife – for his first major address before Congress and the nation we wouldn't have been too pissed off if you'd sprung for a new outfit. Please, please – at least once in a while – would you ditch that J Crew catalog and go do some shopping!