Controversial Post: Has Pin Up Taken Over Vintage?

There is a myriad of ways people wear vintage clothing, but in my experience in the vintage community, people's wardrobes tend to fall into one of three very broad categories: authentic vintage, eclectic vintage, and pin up.

Authentic vintage would be the people that recreate period-accurate looks. The next one is eclectic vintage, or the people that mix lots of decades with modern styles for a look that is unique.  The last one is pin up, or the ladies that dress with a style like, well... a pin up.  Pretty self explanatory.

Personally, I'd probably put myself in the authentic category.  I like doing head to toe 30s and 40s looks, and I tend to get inspiration from more normal, everyday looks like the ones found in vintage photos.  Also, one of the reasons I started wearing vintage was to get access to clothing that was more modest than what is offered in mall stores.  I was tired of the stretchy-tight, short pieces I found at stores, tired of having to be vigilantly aware of the wind patterns while wearing a short dress.  The longer hemlines and more coverage of vintage clothing helps me feel more comfortable, because I'm not afraid I will flash people and I don't have to wear layer upon layer to get the coverage I want. 

However, when a lot of people hear "vintage," they think "pin up." Tight wiggle dresses, giant hair, spike heels, va-voom curves.  Of course, I like those things too and I definitely go for more "pin-uppy" looks from time to time, but I generally don't wear them on a daily basis.

A lot of vintage wearers that are famous could be in the more "pin uppy" category, too.  Dita, for example.  Quite a lot of vintage-style clothing, at least in my experience, seems to cater more toward a pin up look as well.  (Tatyana, Stop Staring, etc.)  This saddens me a little bit, not because I dislike the pin up look, but because it has changed the way people picture past eras' styles.  It has watered down all the various styles found through the 20s, 30s, 40s, and so on to be represented in tight, pin up style clothing.  Look at the "1940s" dresses I found in some prominent shops:

Stop Staring | Modcloth | Lindy Bop

Of course there are authentic reproduction shops, and I don't want to minimize their products or influence.  But it seems pin up style has taken over vintage in some ways, especially as representing the first half of the 20th century to non-vintage wearers.

What do you think, does it seem like the pin up look has begun to represent "vintage" in the non-vintage world? What are your thoughts on that? Where would your style fit, or do you fit in more than one category?

18 Ideas for a Home Dinner for Two

These days of being newly married have been lovely, I will say.  However, sometimes it's nice to get out of the routine and make a really nice dinner, especially during this holiday season when you might need a chance to give that special someone a gift or to spend quality time together before the onslaught of relatives. (I say "onslaught" nicely.) However, many times there isn't room in the schedule or the budget, especially at this time of year, to go out to a nice restaurant, and this is where creativity comes in!  Here are some of the ways you can make a dinner for two extra special:

Low Effort
These tips are simple to do in only a few minutes!

- Eat by candlelight or Christmas lights.
- Sit at the table with each other. No phones, no TV. 
- Play instrumental music in the background.
- Make a beverage for a "cocktail hour" or dessert to have after dinner.
- Take time to have coffee or tea after your meal.
- Eat with chopsticks (or forks, or your hands, whichever isn't your norm!).


Medium Effort
These ideas will take a little more effort and planning, but they are worth it!

- Prepare a meal made entirely of pins from your significant other's Pinterest board.
- Add a nice tablecloth and centerpiece to your dinner table.
- Get out the fine china and use it for dinner.
- Spread a blanket on the floor and have an inside picnic.
- Try another culture's food together.
- Make a meal incorporating different milestones or memories in your relationship.  Food from a special restaurant, or an umbrella in the drink to remember that fabulous trip, etc.

High Effort
These tips can take a lot of time and effort, but the results are memorable!

- Do a holiday meal, even if it isn't the right time of year!  Decorate the table and have a mini Thanksgiving in March or Christmas in July meal.
- Make a tent in a room of your home and light it with candles and Christmas lights.  Throw in some pillows for comfort, and eat dinner in the fort!
- Dress up and have a fancy dinner at home.  Then move furniture around as necessary to make a dance floor.  
- Plan a new kind of meal you've never tried before and cook it together.
- Make an entire dinner of things on skewers.  Fruit, vegetables, meat kabobs, desserts, lots of options!  To get extra fancy, make sauces to go with them.
- Have a themed dinner.  Whether it's based on a movie, story, or character that your significant other enjoys, go all out!  Perhaps some Elvis PB and banana sandwiches, a hobbit second breakfast, a 1920s dinner in Cairo, or a Regency era-appropriate meal would be up your alley.  For extra flair, dress up according to the theme.

Life Advice for Young Southern Women

Last week I had a great time celebrating the engagement of a couple of my friends while eating Indian food, and it turned out to be a quadruple date of married, engaged, and dating couples all in our early 20s.  After dinner we went to my house and drank hot beverages, and the conversation inevitably led to romantic relationships, marriage, and adult life.

My engaged friend and I talked about the expectations that Southern culture (meaning the American South) puts on young women, especially married ones.  We're expected to take care of the home, keep it clean, make it spotless if visitors should come over, bake bread, have a tidy and pretty appearance, make pies, be hospitable, cook gourmet and homemade every night, eat dinner at the table as a family, take care of children, be genteel at all times, and make ridiculously amazing fried chicken and biscuits from memory.  (I'm noticing a pattern of food expectations... ha.)

Quite honestly, I'm not exactly sure where all those expectations come from.  Much of it, for me, came from my family and watching the kind of home my mother created for us.  It came from the stories my grandmother told about making biscuits and chocolate gravy from a young age.  I heard it in the tales of my great-grandmother Julie preparing a giant spread every morning, complete with eggs, pancakes, ham, sausage, hash browns, biscuits, etc. for all the farm hands, then cleaning it all up and immediately starting on lunch.  I saw the southern hospitality my mother and grandmother showed, and our house was never wanting for visitors.

I know that a lot of the vintage community also has these expectations as we look to women in the past for our inspiration, so many of you may have felt these things, too, whether you are married and American or not.

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Before you begin to draw the conclusion that I'm now going to hammer old gender stereotypes to pieces with my modern fist of feminism, I'm going to clarify:

I love these expectations, and I want to meet them.

I have always wanted to be able to make a good pie.  Who doesn't like pie?  I take pride in a clean home and a tidy appearance.  I want to be genteel and ladylike, respected by those around me.  I want to be hospitable and to open my arms to those who need help.  While my life's goals and ambitions are not limited to these things like women may have been limited in the past, I take pride in and value this part of my heritage as a Southern woman and strive to meet these ideals.

However, in these first few months of being married and graduated from university, I've found these expectations to be a huge burden.  I simply couldn't keep the house as clean and the dinners as exquisite as I liked while figuring out a full time job and this guy living in my house, and it frustrated me to no end.  As I failed to meet many of these expectations every week, I felt more and more like a failure as an adult and wife.  It had nothing to do with my husband, who remained encouraging and supportive all the while; it had everything to do with my own expectations of myself. 

I finally came to the conclusion and revelation that I need to let go of the idea that I can be the perfect Southern woman magically by slipping on a wedding ring or receiving a diploma.  I reminded myself of truth and came to these conclusions:

My mother didn't have it all together when she was my age either.
Even though I aspire to a home like the amazing one my mom created for my family, I've reminded myself that her skills were honed over many years of wifely and motherly experience.  I can't expect to do everything she did because I'm only 6 months into getting a handle on this stage of life!

I'm not living the same kind of life as the women before me.
I live in the modern day, and there are all kinds of different pressures, responsibilities, and expectations that the women who have lived before me did not face.  It's not the same world, and I'm not the same kind of person.  I also haven't grown up with the same tools the women before me had, and I've grown up with resources they never could have dreamed of.  I can't perfectly replicate lifestyles of the past because our environments are very different.

I need to proportion my Southern expectations to my life commitments.
Right now I'm working to help put my husband through school, and I am very glad to do it because I believe in what he's doing.  However, that means I'm not a stay at home wife like I'd like to be someday.  I simply don't have time for a pristine home and all the gourmet dinners because I'm working full time, and that's okay.  I'm not forfeiting my Southern woman aspirations; I'm simply exchanging them for other ones that are more important right now.  Perhaps someday I'll be in a position to do more of these old Southern things, but for now I need to prioritize.

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I need to give myself more time to learn.
For some reason I've expected myself to adjust to adult married life in a snap. Our world is moving so fast, and we assume that we can move just as fast.  Ridiculous!  Humans are complex and deep, and life transitions are complex, too.  I need to be more patient with myself as a learn a completely new set of skills and learn to handle the load of details involved in adult life and marriage.  I'm not going to get things right every time, and I need to be patient with myself as I adjust.

I can make my life Southern-beautiful in small ways.
I don't have time for all the things I want to do, but I do have time for many of them.  Whether it's making a pie for my husband or sprucing up the living room, doing what I can to beautify my life and doing it well brings me a sense of achievement.  I know I'm building a home and marriage to last, and that happens one small brick at a time. 

I will grow my skills and efficiency over time.
While not expecting myself to do everything, I do know that I can become more intentional and efficient over time.  By working on one skill or life area at a time and getting a handle on it, I slowly build up my repertoire and increase my capability to handle more.  Of course, my ability to handle more activities won't go up forever (it WILL hit a ceiling), but I will be able to better cope emotionally, mentally, and spiritually with life as I get older.  That being said, it's okay to have fewer things going on in life right now.  I'm adjusting, and simple is good in times of adjustment.

Even if you aren't Southern (or even American!), what are some lessons you learned about yourself early on in your marriage?  If you're single, what curve balls did adult life throw you that you learned to overcome?  What lessons would you share with young women about adult life?


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7 Inexpensive Christmas Ornament Ideas

As a recently wed, recently graduated, new home renter, I don't have much of a store of Christmas decor built up yet, and I don't have a huge budget to buy some.  However, Jacob already had a Christmas tree from his college days, along with five (yep, FIVE) ornaments!  What a start, right?! Ha.  We needed more ornaments.

Here are some inexpensive ornament ideas I've used on our tree in our home this year.  In fact, I decorated our whole tree using items from my stash and about $20 in new items I bought!

1. Candy Canes

Old school charm, you can get big boxes of these for cheap!  Not to mention, every time you have hot chocolate this season, you can just pop a candy cane off the tree to stir it with!  Food AND decoration!  I got a box of six candy canes for 99 cents at Wal-Mart.

2. Bargain Ornaments

In this time of sales, be sure to check the bargain bins for ornaments!  All the red ornaments on the tree were in a large pack.  Usually plainer, more "generic" ornaments like these are easy to come by, and I paid only $8 at Joann for these.

3. Cookie Cutter Ornaments

There are lots of tutorials for these, and they give you creative license to create ornaments you love!  I used old pictures and scrapbook papers on mine.

4. Old Photos

I wanted to add a little more diversity to the ornament shapes on the tree (after having all globe shaped ones), so I propped some vintage photos I already had here and there all over the tree.  It adds a vintage feel, though I have to explain to every man that sees it that, no, they aren't family pictures or anything.  They're photos of random dead people that look fabulous.  And I like them.

5.  Popcorn Strings

I was going to do this, but I decided against it when I remembered our popcorn-loving dog also lives in our home.  However, although time-intensive, popcorn strings are hugely economical and add a lot of old fashioned whimsy to a tree.

6.  Clothespins

You can also put clothespins on your tree!  They clip right to the branches, and you can leave them plain for a homespun look or decorate them as you like!  They come in bags of multiples in craft stores and are generally offered at a low price point.

7. Paper Snowflakes

Cheaply made and fun to create, paper snowflakes are classic!  You can make them simple or intricate and in any color you can find in a paper!  They're versatile enough to coordinate with any tree or decor theme you may have, and simple enough to churn out a bunch in one sitting.  You can also have kids help you make these!

What other inexpensive ornament ideas have you used or thought of?

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December Sponsorship Special - 10% off coupon!

I love buying from small businesses and connecting with other bloggers, and to promote this, I have a 10% discount coupon code for all sponsorship packages bought in the month of December!

If you'd like to get a bit more exposure for your business or blog this holiday season, Flashback Summer is the place to do it!  With packages as low as $5 (before the coupon!), there's no reason not to give your shop or blog a boost this month!

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Mrs. Depew Pattern Giveaway Winner!

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Just a quick announcement to let you all know the winner of the Mrs. Depew Digital Pattern giveaway!  Using a random selector via Rafflecopter, the winner is....

TINA C.!

I have already emailed you with details on how to claim your prize!  Congratulations!

Thanks to everyone who participated as well!  I do love a good giveaway, and your supportive turnout always makes me want to do more for you guys!



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