An introduction and Vintage Posters - The perfect life

An introduction and Vintage Posters - The perfect life

I'm always hoping to bring you guys a fresh perspective on the beautiful world of vintage paraphernalia but sometimes this is easier to say than do. So what better way to achieve this than to ask one of my lovely fellow vintage vixens to join us here? That's exactly what I've done, you can thank me later.

So without further ado, it's my pleasure to introduce our new guest blogger - Annie Ef! 

You either love them or hate them. There's no middle ground. They are explicit, sexist, racist, and just straightforward. Whenever I come upon one, I always imagine a white guy in a suit, smoking his cigar, drinking his whiskey, and coming up with marketing ideas. Political correctness? Pffff.

 If you look at the world through vintage ads goggles, things seem to be so… easy. You know exactly what the commercial is for, and the message it conveys. Don't believe me? Here, take a look:

A bottle of ketchup with a cork you can unscrew? *You mean a woman can open it?*

A commercial for Dormeyer electronics store? Just read through it, there's nothing to add.                                                                                                                                                                                   






It not only shows the store off, it gives you tips. Wives, cry just a little. Husbands, go buy what she wants before she starts to cry. It's that simple.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          The image painted by those ads is very clear. The man is independent, smart, strong, and handsome. He gets his women, and he does so thanks to our cigarettes!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             





                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 He then falls in love with the sweet girl next door. She, on the other hand, is pretty, a bit silly and clumsy, and she needs her men to protect her. She might not be too smart, and messes up sometimes, but he forgives her.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

They live in this paradise for a while, then a baby comes along. It's obvious that parents want their children to have a good start.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Your kid isn't doing that well in school, seems a bit slow? Get your medical advice from us! We take care of you 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Speaking of medical advice, did you know that more doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarettes?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 However, your dentist recommends Viceroys.  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Lucky Strikes on the other hand are good for weight loss. Take your pick!

Vintage ads took care of you. People who made them understood your problems, and wanted to help you with them. The product they tried to sell was the solution to your every day struggles. This might be the reason why they are so appealing. Yes, they are offensive, and yes they paint a sugary version of life. At the same time they are down to earth, they portray simple people with simple problems. It's easier to relate to a housewife trying to make her husband happy, than it is to a supermodel. The ad tells you how to fix your problem, promises you a better life, if you only buy what they are selling!

Now, I see why a lot of people don't like vintage commercials. They take harmful products, package them nicely, and sell as medicine. They show women as naive and completely dependant on men. Then again, when's the last time you turned your TV on? Were those ads that different from what we're used to now?
                                   

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Accessorize yourself (Part 1)

Accessorize yourself (Part 1)

Solene Percher by Stephen Plumb, hair bow by  Diablo Jo's

"You can't put a price tag on love, but you can on all its accessories" - Melanie Clark

         What do you look for when choosing accessories? Is it value for money, brand appeal, quality, design or a mixture of all four? 

I personally like to try and achieve a good balance of value for money, quality and design . I also like to try and buy locally and/or hand crafted items.

When I find something new and exciting (even if it's only new to me) I love to share it, and this is exactly what I'm going to do now. 

Obviously, there are many good accessories websites out there and that's without mentioning the abundance of creative and talented artists on Etsy but I want to concentrate on an incredibly talented lady, and her shop Diablo Jo's. This site is beautifully designed, so easy to navigate and has lots of lovely goodies for your perusal and buying pleasure.

I can't resist but to tote some on here (especially as my geographical location at the moment prevents me on buying any!).

Hawaiian Barkcloth Bow

This Hawaiian bow is first on my want list. I think it's so cute and would work well with any hairstyle and colour, I can't wait to get my hands on it and for only £3.50 it's a bargain!

Red and Gold Hawaii Fascinator

My next pick is the beautiful Red and Gold Hawaii Fascinator. How stunning would this look on luscious ebony locks or shimmering crimson tresses? Us redheads sometimes find it hard to match accessories to our hair that don't dull our colour or make it too coppery so this beaut is a definite must. At only £20 it's a worthy addition to your collection.





As you can tell I love Hawaii prints and hibiscus flowers but I promise not all of my recommendations are not based around this theme...instead the lovely Diablo Jo's also provides accessories to cover all tastes and obsessions...even my other one - cherries!

This headscarf is such a simple classic design, and by no means do
I mean this in a derogatory way. This is a perfect design and a necessary part of everyone's collection, whether it has cherries on it or not is up to you. The benefits of having a classic design like this is flexibility  you can match it with most outfits and it will definitely go well with any hair colour...literally any! Another steal at just £4.00


I'm going to now wrap up this article with one more precious piece from Diablo Jo's as I fear otherwise I will just end up adding the whole site here!

'Lil' Cherry' Scroll clip pack

So my last selection is to fit with the above headscarf, this lady has come up with a brilliant design of securing the item - matching hair clips! She has these for most of her headscarf designs so you don't have to have any boring or unsightly bobby pins popping out and ruining the whole ensemble. Just £10 to have this peace of mind.







I suggest you get your little fingers over to her site so you don't turn blue holding your breath from excitement!

Enjoy shopping ladies ;)

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How to get your favourite classic movies cheaply or FREE!

How to get your favourite classic movies cheaply or FREE!

A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet. 

Orson Welles 

I love old movies, all types - detective, war, mystery, Alfred Hitchcock (c'mon people, he deserves his own category), romance, comedy, musicals and a mixture of the above also. They had such a carefree vibe to them and you truly felt that the actors and actresses were in them for the love of acting instead of how big the pay check would be or how much they'd score at the box office.

Yes, we got fooled with some of the stars when they sang being replaced with trained professional singers but hey, who cares right? At least they still sounded good unlike more recent fools (*cough* Milli Vanilli *cough*). Also, we didn't get so many remakes. Don't you feel like screaming when they go and remake a good film, probably for the 20th time?! Ok that was an exaggeration, the 3rd...that's more like it, right? Sometimes of course, the remake is better than the original, for instance (and I may get lynched for writing this) but take 'Babes in Toyland' personally my favourite version is the 1961 film, maybe it's because I saw this as a child and before the 1934 Laurel and Hardy version (which I'm not knocking) but it's a million times better than the 1986 version with Keanu Reeves (as a friend of mine summed Keanu up when she watched the latter version - ' he keeps doing his gormless stare ' perfect way of describing the whole film).

But c'est la vie, we can't moan now when they've already made the remakes and, most of the time, ruined the job completely. Let's get to the actual subject at hand - where to get movies on DVD for cheap and where to stream them for FREE!

My first site to refer you to for this is an obvious one - Ebay - they have lots of good deals and there is usually an ebay dedicated site (or one that you may order from such as Ebay.com) wherever you live in the world. You can search by title, actor/actress or even by release date! Very handy if you just want to search for missing titles of your collection but can't remember the specific names.

My second site is also an obvious one but quite often overlooked - Amazon - for an example I put my search term in that link as 'classic DVD films' and just look at the wealth of results, so once again, you don't have to be too specific if you don't want to be.

My third link is more of an unusual one, most people I know don't know of it which confuses me - Ebid - this is a great site as most people don't know of it so you can get really good bargins on here, the only downside is that for exactly the same reason you might not always get results for your searches :/ They have international websites too, catering for Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, India, Spain, Sweden, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, USA. I'm sure that if your country isn't listed, you could use another one and just check with individual listings to see if they post internationally.

My fourth link is a nice cheap site - Classic Movie Store - this store sells so many box sets so cheaply in their sales. They also stock a range of decades not only movies but T.V shows from those decades also.
Here's a deal I'd love for a present ;)

Cary Grant box set for £2.97!

Now, my fifth link is for my American and Canadian readers (supposing you guys are out there) or even for others in the rest of the world who don't mind the postage fees :) Deep Discount - it has a classic movies section, which of course is where my link will take you straight to, and their prices are pretty good. Most DVD's are between $5-$10 not a bad bargain eh?

My sixth link - Where can you go if you feel like having a classic late night movie fest but feel like trying flicks you've never seen before? Classic Flix is the place to go for that, I have to admit they're a bit expensive to buy the movies but here you can RENT them! I love this idea and wish I was in the States to try it....so let me know what it's like if you do go for it :)

Now, onto the FREE ones! We all love free stuff correct? Of course we do!

My seventh link is one I regularly visit, especially when the other half is working late - Classic Cinema Online - this is a lovely website that's just had a redesign and update. It's really user friendly and doesn't have so many of those annoying adverts, plus I've never seen a pop-up on this site! No sign up required or hidden fees, literally you can just watch whatever they have on the site and they're always adding new ones.

My eighth link is an unknown one, Open Culture this website has an archive of all sorts of things and in amongst those they have some hidden gems of old movies, for an example - The 39 Steps - is on here :)

My second to last link comes from Internet Archive - This site has a wealth of old movies, of all different genres and decades, they even have a dedicated Film Noir section. If you select 'Feature Films' that's where you'll find all the goodies but check out the other categories as well, you don't know what you might find. Also, they have a spotlight item that changes every month that's usually worth checking out.

My last website (for now) is Solar Movie - this site unfortunately has A LOT of pop ups but if you persevere through them you get the goods without sign up or fees...and let's face it, if you can't find the film on the previous listed websites then closing a few pop up windows is well worth watching your beloved old movies.

I hope this list has helped you and that you enjoy rediscovering all those films!

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Hello my lovelies!

Hello my lovelies!

"The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mode but the true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives the passion that she shows. The beauty of a woman grows with the passing years." 

Audrey Hepburn 

I created this blog to share my passion of all things vintage, retro and kitsch and hopefully provide you, the readers and fellow lovers of mothballs, with some lovely websites and deals I come across.

As I am a avid baker, I will be highlighting vintage baking and cooking accessories and equipment too, along with telling you how to use some of the outdated bits and bobs. 

Of course, if you come across something not featured on here or you feel I missed out, please do drop me a line or post in the comments about your find - I'm all about sharing knowledge and credit of course.

So I hope you enjoy this blog and the journey we are embarking on, and remember to check back regularly for updates and new posts.

Au revoir, at least for now ;)

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