Checkered birthday outfit

Happy 35th birthday to me! Here's to my first outfit post in our new yard. I'm so excited to have an outdoor space now. It was a rather cold and miserable day (as often happens to us April birthday babies), so lots of wool was in order.

Unfortunately you can't really tell that I dared to match up two different checked patterns, in my overalls and my blouse. But I think it worked. You'll just have to take my word on that!

This is the patio area to the side of our garage. It needs a lot of work, but we have some ideas. The slightly dodgy and clearly long-enjoyed picnic table was left with the house and will become our first DIY project, as we plan to restore it soon so we can enjoy it for more years to come.

Outfit details: wool checked overalls from Jitterbuggin, boat shoes from Rocket Originals, wooden squirrel pin and checked blouse from Etsy, bakelite and another vintage plastic bangle from here or there, Irish sweater purchased on the Aran Islands.

I've been having a lovely day so far. I worked from home, Mel brought me an ice cream cake (my favorite), and we're ordering pizza from a highly recommended (so I've read) pizza place in our new neighborhood that's been around almost as long as our house has. Cheers to happy birthdays!

Birthday weekend round-up Part 2, Instagram style

Part two of my weekend round-up, this time in Instagram photos. There's no narration for these, you already got the main round-up so you can fill in the blanks. I just love the old feel this app gives photos (when it works right). It's so much fun to tinker with!

 I hope to have a mini tutorial on making vintage-inspired earrings up a bit later this week, stay tuned!

Birthday weekend round-up Part 1

After work on Friday, we picked up two of our close friends and hit the road, heading to southwestern Wisconsin to spend a couple of nights in Dodgeville.

Saturday morning we headed "downtown" (since I live in Chicago, quotation marks are definitely needed when talking about the downtown of a town of 4,000) in search of coffee, tea and breakfast goodies. I wore my Freddie's overalls (they were my weekend staple), a vintage cowboy shirt, some Bakelite bangles and a wicker purse, which is the reason I'm no longer fretting about a brown purse for VLV right now. See? Brown lucite handle and accents on the front. Suitably brown enough for now.

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Today is my grandmother's 96th birthday. Isn't that wonderful?

It's always easy to remember someone's birthday when it falls on a holiday. Of course, there was the year that my grandfather spaced out exactly which holiday her birthday fell on. Instead of wishing her a happy birthday on St. Patrick's Day, he did it a month earlier on Valentine's Day. My grandparents were happily married for over 50 years, and my grandfather died when I was still school-aged, but I believe my grandmother is still cranky about that birthday flub over 40 years after the fact!

My grandma Nella Mae lives in New Mexico, where most of my Dad's family has settled over the years. It was a favorite vacation spot for my grandparents and their three sons in the 1950s. They lived in Kansas and would spend summers enjoying the outdoors in New Mexico, unlike most everyone else who enjoyed the outdoors in Colorado. (Which, I believe, is exactly why my grandfather picked New Mexico.) They even built a cabin there. Slowly over the years all three sons moved there and my grandparents retired there. My dad is the most recent addition to the state. There are several places on this planet that I really adore, and New Mexico is right up there on that list.

Here's a photo of her with her boys taken in 1950. The back of the photo was labeled "Christmas vacation, Nyack, NY 1950". My dad is the crabby looking one-year-old in the middle, in the earflap hat. I love how my grandma looks stylish yet casual. That's always been her way. Feminine but not fussy. I guess that's one thing I really learned from her!



Happy Birthday, Grandma!