Vintage dresses

I found this 1950s dress for about $20! It's in great condition. It fits really well and is so soft and flowy. I would like to hem it though. Right at the knee or a little above the knee would feel better to me. I want to make a matching belt with the fabric I cut off the bottom. I may take in the bust a little too. Who knows. I'm hoping to get an adjustable dress form for my birthday or mother's day. That would be a tremendous help!

Chocolate Marble Loaf Cake

 Chocolate marble cakes are so retro. I love the combination of vanilla and chocolate together. I made mine gluten free. Next time I will make sure I swirl the batter together a little better.

I found this 1953 Better Homes and Gardens cookbook at an antique store while visiting family in Va during our Christmas vacation. It is in amazing condition. The pictures inside are bright and almost cartoon like. So fun!

 Chocolate Marble Loaf Cake


1/3 cups non hydrogenated shortening
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups sifted cake flour or gluten free flour with xanthum gum
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk
3 stiff beaten egg whites
1  1-oz square unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules dissolved in 2 tablespoons hot water 
1/4 teaspoon baking soda


Cream shortening and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add vanilla. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together. Add to creamed mixture alternating between the milk and flour, a small amount at a time beating until smooth after each addition. Fold in egg whites. Combine melted chocolate, dissolved coffee and baking soda together. Add this to half the batter. Alternate light and dark batters by spoonfuls in a greased and floured 10x5x3in loaf pan. Swirl the batter around with a knife or skewer. Bake at 350 about 45-60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool and frost or serve as is.

 I made a simple chocolate ganache to frost my cake. You can see Amelia couldn't wait to taste it.

Lake Cottage and Thrifting

While vacationing in Virginia for Christmas we got to stay at my parents lake cottage for a few days.  It was so relaxing and peaceful. Clarksville, Va is about an hour from my home town of Amelia County. It has become a vacationing town with cute antique and thrift shops, restaurants, bed and breakfasts and even a little herbal store. It's filled with gorgeous old homes. Lots for sale too! 

My mom, Amelia and I spent most of our time thrifting and antiquing along with coffee drinking, sitting and talking, playing with puppies, and just hanging out. That's what you do at the lake. No rushing around. No alarm clocks. You go with the flow. I will post some pictures of the old houses I took last year. So much history in this small quiet town.

I found some goodies while in Clarksville, Va too and will post about my treasures next. Virginia has some great thrift stores let me tell ya! I was so excited about the fun things I found and at great prices too. If you ever visit Virginia bring an extra suitcase and make sure you visit the local thrift and antique shops.

We went to a local thrift store that had some beautiful vintage sewing machines.

My mom is collecting mix matched floral dishes and bowls instead of one matching set. Such a fun idea. They recently remodeled the cottage kitchen and added shelves instead of upper cabinets which makes a great display for all of her floral dishes. I sent her pictures of vintage green utensils and enamelware and she matched up a paint color at Lowes to paint the shelves and knobs this "Grandma" green! I so love this color!

I found these Target brand floral dishes at the Thrift store and bought them for the cottage! They have a vintage feel I think. I also found these 8 piece cups and saucers at the same thrift store for $4! They are so cute!

 

The vintage strawberry bowl below was $3 at an antique shop! I decided that strawberries should accent my mom's cottage kitchen. She agreed. hehe

The cake keeper was something my mom found at an antique shop a while back. Isn't it sweet?!

Vintage Scarves

I found these colorful scarves at a thrift store while in Va during Christmas.  A few dollars a piece and in great condition. I have a few that belonged to my Nana and I love to wear them so I thought I would start collecting a few here and there. I need to find a better way to store them.

{From Vintage Postcard Gallery}

This little girl looks adorable with a scarf on her head!

{Factory workers warping their hair up with simple scarves. From Michal Hadassah Flikr}

I think one of the reasons I, as well as many others associate headscarves with the 1940's is because of it's use during the war efforts.  Women went to work at the factories and fields when their husbands, brothers and fathers went off to war. In order to keep their hair safely out of the way while working on machinery they would wrap their hair up in scarves or turbans. Women also wore headscarves while cooking, cleaning, swimming, gardening, putting on make up, riding a bike, setting pin curls, etc. Practical yet feminine.

I LOVE this WWII advertisement. The many hats of women during the war.

{From zombielace}

{From vintagelabels}

A side note. Have you noticed that most of the scarves in the pictures are red and white polka dot?! I did not plan that! lol

Super Kawaii Mama has a video on how to wear a headscarf.

Amelia's Easter Dress

I found this adorable pattern from StillSewStylish on Etsy. She has tons of vintage patterns including a nice collection of children's patterns. I feel like it's harder to find children's vintage sewing patterns than adults. I think I will use style B for Amelia's Easter Dress.

 

{Mine and Amelia's dresses will be made out of this Springy fabric by Heather Bailey}

 

I'm way behind on Casey's Sew Along but hope to start soon. I wish I had an adjustable dress form. It would make life so much easier.  Speaking of making life easier! I finally figured out what was wrong with my serger. I was missing a step!  The directions were confusing and the thread hole was in a hidden place. Sergers are amazing!!! I received mine for mother's day two years ago.  It probably sat collecting dust for 1 year when I thought it was broken. Last night I hemmed some pants for my husband and the finished product looked so professional and clean.

{I have this basic Janome Serger}

Vintage Charm For Little Girls

I love the colors that can be found in vintage handkerchiefs.  I knew I wanted to decorate my daughter's room with vintage handkerchiefs when I was pregnant.  It took me until she was 2 years old to decide on what to do with all of the handkerchiefs I had been collecting.  I found music album frames at Micheal's and spray painted them a buttery yellow.  After ironing out all of the wrinkles I framed the handkerchief up. 

(I need to take down the crib now that Amelia is in the big bed now)

You can also see the amazing quilt I found at an antique shop in Amelia, Va.  It was neatly laid on an antique bed.  I squealed with delight when I saw it and after further inspection I noticed it was in perfect vintage condition.  All it needed was a good soak in the washing machine.  It has some fun pattern which I believe start around the early 60's.

All of the colors in the quilt pull together the colors in the vintage handkerchiefs I think.  I love how her room has come together.  I settled for plain white Target shams and curtains by Shabby Chic.

Va in December

We spent a month in my home town of Amelia, Va.  It was great being back home for Christmas.  It snowed twice! I love snow at Christmas time.  I tried several times to blog I promise but I stayed busy cooking or watching children.  I can't complain.  I loved every minute of it.  One of my New Year's resolutions is to be a consistent blogger.  

I want to recap the month of December so I can share with you a little of my decorating, baking, and snow!

My sweet little tree.  It consist of a crochet garland I made last year, vintage glass ornaments that belonged to my Grandmother, Amelia's annual ornaments, my childhood ornaments and ornaments we have collected on our travels. We had our own Christmas morning the Saturday before we left for Va.  It was so fun because Amelia was old enough to understand the excitement.

I bought this wreath at The Pottery in Williamsburg, Va.  My mom gave me the three little houses. I crocheted our stockings this year! I was so proud of myself for being able to pull it together.

We bought this table on sale from World Market as a Christmas present to each other.  We bought two benches instead of chairs. I bought the place mats and napkins from TJ Maxx. I love setting a table.  There are limitless possibilities!. We had our best friends over on our special Christmas morning to have a country breakfast with us. All the classics that we avoid most of the year; biscuits, milk gravy, bacon, chicken sausage, fried eggs, and some yogurt with fresh blueberries and granola to even everything out. lol

I found these charming salt and pepper shakers at an antique shop in Ventura, Ca over the Thanksgiving break.  I was shocked when I saw them and got really excited when I saw they were only $9!!!!

Making homemade biscuits to go with my homemade milk gravy. YUM! I recently learned from Gluten-Free Girl that rice flour is a great substitute for wheat flour when I need to thicken a gravy so next time I will try to make gluten-free milk gravy.  We will see.

I invited my best friend and her son over for coffee and gingerbread making day.  It was so fun.  The kids did really well.  They kept sneaking little pieces of candy in between decorating.

I mixed up, cut out and baked the gingerbread house pieces before they arrived so that we could decorate them right away.  Again, the kids ate waaay too much candy. 

Amelia was so meticulous when it came to putting the candy in the right places.  Ok, Ok, I did help but once I told her how to do something she went for it and did a really good job.  We saved the gingerbread house for our Christmas morning which was the Saturday before we left for Va.

Me and my beautiful baby niece Isabella.

This is the farmhouse my dad grew up in and now my sister and her family lives here.  It's so cozy when it's dark outside and the window candles are glowing. You can't tell but it is still snowing here and we ended up with 5-6 inches.

My papa got a kick out of my hair and red lips! He thinks it is so funny that I love vintage looks.  Granted I'm not as authentic as most enthusiast but I am learning and building up my courage.

I hope to get a post up soon about our trip to my beloved Colonial Williamsburg! Lots of pictures and lots of snow.  I also want to share my recipe for candied popcorn.  One of my papa Hastings' favorites!

Crochet Baby Gifts

I made these beauties for my sweet baby niece Olivia.  I knew right away that this little girl needed frilly handcrafted things.  I was so right.  She is quite the princess being the only baby girl in a house with two older brothers.

I came across a pattern for a crochet baby cloche on one of my favorite blogs, Aesthetic Nest. I joke that I want to be like her when I grow up.  She is so fun!  She puts together amazing parties for her daughter's birthdays, as well as, holiday parties.  She sews gorgeous dresses for her daughters too.

I bought a pdf pattern for the baby ballet slippers from mompetitviolon on Etsy. They are easy to crochet and so so so cute!!  I accented the crochet flowers with vintage buttons that I picked up from a local antique store.

As far as the blanket goes I made it up as I went but the main pattern was a large granny square and then I finished it with treble crochet stitches and a shell pattern.

Handmade gifts are so personal and crochet is classic.  I look forward to seeing Olivia wrap her baby girl up in this blanket one day.

Canned Crushed Tomatoes

Vintage WWII canning books I bought from eBay

I found these beautiful vintage canning books from eBay.  All three came together and date from 1939 to1941. It's so neat to see that the big book only cost $.10. Most often the mini pamphlets came free with a purchased item. Maybe with a box of Kerr jars.  Surprisingly these books are in great condition considering their age.  While looking through this piece of history I decided to can something and the only thing that came to mind were the many heirloom tomatoes coming out of my garden.

Heirloom tomatoes from my little garden

Canning is pretty easy.  There are two different ways to "can" food depending on what you want to preserve.  There is the "Hot Water Bath" and the "Pressure Cooker Method".  Jams, jellies, pickles and some types of fruits and vegetables can be canned in a hot water bath which I think is the easiest. These may be Kerr canning books but I grew up with everyone in my family using the Ball canning book and jars.  Both companies follow the same national canning guidelines but they have their own jam and pickle recipes I'm sure. Ball has a great website with canning how-to videos and recipes. 

I followed the directions for canning crushed tomatoes. Very simple. I blanched the tomatoes in boiling water and then dropped them into ice water.  This allows the skin to peel off easily. I then put the peeled tomatoes into a bowl to crush them up.

Using a pastry blender made crushing the tomatoes very easy

Fi1lled my clean jars with the crushed tomatoes and topped them with sea salt

Canning in a hot water bath for the specified amount of time

And the finished product, Canned Crushed Tomatoes

Home canning is so normal to me.  It was a way of life growing up.  We either canned or froze our garden's harvest each year.  Some things are definitely better canned and some are better frozen.  Green beans hold their shape best when canned and butter beans are better frozen. Check out the other things I have canned.