a cloche hat...um...Yes Please!

I still need to upload pictures from the amazing shower that I threw for my friend Amanda. I will get to that soon...

In the meantime my husband has shared one of his internet loves with me and I am obsessed. You must check this website out! It is basically a blog of the most beautiful (mostly black and white photographs) from the Library of Congress archives. I am completely addicted to scrolling through these amazing photos. The ones of women, children and African American's are always particularly striking to me (not so much the train pics. ha ha).

So Zach and I live in a house that was built in 1927. We have always loved old things but since moving into our house we have become especially interested in this specific year. As I've been looking through the pictures on Shorpy I have once again been struck by the styles of the 1920's and decided that it would be fun to have something to wear from the era of my house. The item of clothing that keeps standing out to me is the Cloche Hat.

Oh my goodness how CUTE are these! I must have one!!! This will be my latest item to search for in our next antiquing adventures. I will keep you posted. I think the first time I ever saw one was on Tatum O'Neal in Paper Moon (fabulous movie by the way. GREAT 20's fashion!)

Inspiration

Two of my friends heard I was throwing a shower and that I was hoping to make lots and lots of cupcakes so they purchased this lovely "deck" of recipes for me to inspire me during my planning. The recipes in here are DELICIOUS and surprisingly easy for baking from scratch. Plus, they come in a cute little deck that is fun to leave out in your kitchen.

I will be posting pictures of the cupcakes I made and the fabulous table from the shower soon.

Oh My Goodness!!!

I am throwing a bridal shower for a good friend of mine tomorrow and as I have been preparing I have realized that I have a serious lack of beautiful cake stands in my life. I envision the table tomorrow filled with adorable milk glass cake stands loaded with homemade cupcakes. Alas, I have only one cake stand, and it is glass. This raised my curiosity about what types of cakes stands even exist out there that would fit in my fabulous vintage kitchen...I am quite happy with what I was able to discover.

If only I could order a few of these in time for tomorrow's shower! *sigh*

I have a feeling that the shower is going to be quite beautiful sans my own personal collection of gorg vintage cake stands. I have a few tricks up my sleeve and I plan to post pictures soon. Stay tuned!

These adorable cake stands are currently for sale on ebay!

Fire King Turquoise Blue

My amazing mother-in-law added to my Fire King Turquoise Blue collection this past week for my birthday. If it was not for her I would not have any of these beautiful dishes. It is difficult to find information about the Fire King Turquoise Blue line online. I am pretty confident that I have one of the largest collections in existence. Thanks Effie!

This isn't even my whole collection. I have many more pieces in my butler's pantry.

another great blog

Zach found this blog today and it is amazing. If you enjoy the 1920's or Art Deco you must check it out.

Art Deco Blogspot

choosing a color...

Zach's parents have graciously offered to pay for us to have our living room and dining room painted as a graduation gift for me finishing my doctorate! Today my mother-in-law came over to help me strip the horrible wall paper put up by our home's previous owners. The paper itself was not necessarily horrible, it is just that it was victorian in style and did nothing to showcase the beautiful lines of our craftsman style home. Needless to say, the room looks quite different without the busy wallpaper mucking it all up. Now comes the very difficult task of trying to pick paint colors. I was hoping to find arts and crafts toned colors that would be consistent with the history of our home. I would like to do a burt-fallish-natural-orange in the dining room and a goldeny-yellow in the living room. The yellow needs to match the stained glass windows and the two colors need to flow into one another as the rooms are only separated by a dark oak room divider (I know, our house is gorgeous!)

These photos show the rooms with the wallpaper still up.

Blogs I've been reading

At the risk of putting myself to shame, I have been reading some new blogs lately that are just lovely! Aside from the words, just scrolling through and looking at the layouts and pictures is inspiring. Check these ladies out! Strawberry Koi has some of the absolute best videos I have ever seen on how to do fabulous vintage hair-styles including pin-curls. 

Strawberry Koi

Chronically Vintage

Bernice Bobs Her Hair

Retro Ways

*sigh* I'm in love.