Zooey Deschanel...My Vintage- Meets- Modern Style Icon

Hi Lovies!!!

Now that Autumn is back in full swing, I've been slowly becoming re-addicted to my favorite TV shows!!! Most television series are having their season premiers in the next few weeks. I can't tell you how excited I am for Once Upon a Time, American Horror Story...Grey's Anatomy, How I Met Your Mother and Parenthood (all three of these had their first shows of the season this past week), Modern Family and more!!! As you can see we have a full DVR queue!!!

One of my favorite shows of all time is New Girl staring Zooey Deschanel!!!! I totally adore this show! It is ridiculously funny, the writing is amazing!!! And the cast...LOVE THEM! They are HILARIOUS!!!!!

Of course my favorite characters is Jess, played by one of my favorite celebrities, Zooey Deschanel! Jess is an awkward, quirky but totally awesome, late 20s to early 30s something who lives in a loft with three guys. All of whom are like her family. Of course there are epically funny adventures that ensue in every episode. Some scenarios are so totally ridiculous and out there that I practically pee myself with laughter (yes, I know that that is TOTALLY not lady like but it's so true)!

I love Zooey in this role. I secretly hope that she is a lot like Jess in her real life. I love the fact that her character on the show carries on Zooey's real life love affair with vintage and vintage style clothing!

Zooey is great at pulling off a "vintage meets modern" style. While I mostly prefer full on vintage clothing I love the way she makes vintage style clothing work for her. It gives me ideas on how I can wear clothes with a vintage-y edge without going all the way. Some days it's just easier to give a taste of vintage. On those days I channel my inner Zooey.

She is always super adorable!!!

I would TOTALLY love to be her bestie... and in my mind... I AM!

I first became a fan of Zooey's when she did the Christmas film, ELF, with Will Farrell. Yes, of course, I loved her first because of a Christmas movie, hehe!

And I've remained a fan ever since. I also love the music duo she is apart of called She & Him. They make super cute old school sounding tunes. They're music is great to relax to with a good glass of wine and your favorite book.

And... If you are looking for a super cute blog/website to read that is fun and full of girl power try the website Hello Giggles founded by Zooey and two of her friends. It's a cute little site that features a host of different bloggers who write about everything from politics to relationships to off the wall DIY projects!!! It's one of my favorite things to read when I need a little pick me up. 

One of my favorite things about Zooey Deschanel I found out about while randomly browsing TV and coming upon the show Who Do You Think You Are?. This show takes different celebrities and delves into their family history and finds out their ancestry. Well, on the show about her family she came to find out that her family has a Quaker ancestry and two of her ancestors were vital to the abolitionist movement and were part of the Underground Railroad! It was quite and interesting show and made me love her even more. If you come upon a repeat episode of it you should watch it!!!

Ok, I think I'm done fan girling for the day! I just love celebrities who have great vintage style. Who are your favorite celebrities who wear vintage???

Hearts and hugs

Vintage Christmas Prep- 3 Months!!!!

Hi everyone!!!

Before I start I want to apologize for the two week absence. UGH!! At first it was just because I was extremely busy with starting the new dance school season. Then I was having trouble with the wireless internet service in our apartment. But, now everything is back to normal and I'm back!!! YAY!!!!

Well, today is September 25th (can you believe that it's the end of September? Already!!! AND Autumn is officially here!!! WOOT!) so you know what that means VINTAGE CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!

I had planned on sharing a 1947 Better Homes and Gardens magazine that I bought from ebay. Unfortunately, it hasn't arrived in the post yet so I'll have to save that for another day. I can't wait to get it!!! I've also ordered a couple of new skirts and some vintage Christmas ornaments. Hopefully it all arrives soon so that I can share.

Since I don't have the magazine yet,  I thought I would share some of the recipes I want to try out this holiday. Since we are trying to do a late 40s Christmas I want to put away some of my trusted new modern recipes and try some older ones. Honey is not too keen on the idea but she's willing to try it. I figured I would do mostly baking recipes since those are the ones that seemed to work best when I did the 50's Housewife project

So here they are:

The first ones come from Gourmet magazine. I was so lucky as to find a list of some of their Christmas cookie recipes from the 1940's. A recipe for every year in the 40's!!! This is a great list of cookies. It states on the website that these are all authentic recipes from their 1940's issues. All of the recipes were retested but none of the recipes were altered in any way! FUN!

Gourmet Magazine Cookie Recipes from the 1940's

The next recipe is a 1946 recipe that comes from an unpublished book on British food written by George Orwell. The book was never published because of the severe rationing during wartime. I've always wanted to try a traditional Christmas pudding but always chicken out at the last minute. I've decided to be brave and just go for it this year. 

George Orwell's Christmas Pudding

Here is a leaflet of food facts from 1945. It also contains recipes that are made with rationed ingredients. I'm thinking of trying the Mincemeat recipe.

Food Facts Leaflet

Here are some Honey Filled Cookies from a 1940s Women's Day magazine. They look a little labor intensive but YUMMY! I don't think I've ever had a honey filled cookie!

Women's Day Honey Cookies

These last few recipes are from the Edith Adams website (Edith, I've found out, was a fictitious food writer for the Vancouver Sun. There were actually 5 different women who made up Edith. Fun huh?!?). How yummy do these recipes sound?! I think I'll try them all!!!

Last Minute Christmas Cake

War Christmas Candy

Bachelor's Yule Cake

Never Fail Creamy Fudge

So there it is. The start, of my Christmas baking list!!! I usually start gathering recipes around this time every year. Then I start practicing baking new recipes in October. I MUST do a baking trial because, as you may have noticed, I'm a little particular about baking. It has to be perfect, especially for holidays. There is nothing worse than trying out a recipe on the day you need it and it turns out a bust. UGH!!! A pre-bake is a complete must in our house!!!


Don't forget. Only 91 days! Don't let it sneak up on you!!!!



xoxo

Technical Difficulties

Hey guys!

Just letting you all know that I'm  having technical difficulties with my internet service. I hope to be back up and running by Monday (I'm writing this from my phone!! Grrrr...).

Dont worry! I'm still working on posts. Just the old fashioned way! Pen to paper!

See you all next week!!!

Xoxo

September 11, 2001

Today, I don't have a blog post for you guys. 

As you all know, today marked the anniversary of September 11, 2001.

As a transplanted New Yorker who remembers the day vividly, it still makes me emotional to think about. Luckily, I was at home that day. But had it been a week earlier I would have been in the building at the time the planes hit the towers ( I had just finished my first ever summer teaching job in NJ. I walked through the World Trade Center to get to my train).

I remember my roommate's parents calling all the way from Italy asking if I was watching the news. I was trying to sleep in that day so I wasn't. My roommate was already at school and the television was off. I turned it on...it was around 9am, just after the first tower was hit. I watched in total disbelief and was quite honestly terrified. I had only been in the city for 2 years by that point and knew no one but the dancer friends I had made while training.  I had no clue what to do.  Or what was going to happen. It's a helpless feeling to watch that all by yourself in an empty apartment at 20 years old. So I just sat there, and watched the news, watch the second plane hit the remaining tower. And saw them both go down... and cried. That's all I could do. It really was a terribly painful day. The city came to a stand still. Not only because the subway stopped running and businesses closed up but...the city just got...still. 

But in true NY fashion, New Yorkers were able to pick up the pieces and trudge ahead. Although there were some scares left on the city, it was never broken. 

So today, I salute all of those who lost their lives, who lost loved ones, those who risked their lives to try to help and those who still risk their lives to keep us safe!!!!

To the heroes!!!!

Hug someone today and let them know how much they mean to you. It's important!!!

xoxo

Midcentury Pink's Summer in Review

Well, we're already 4 days into September! Where did the summer go?!? It really did go by really fast. But as you all know, I've been super excited to get the summer over and jump head first into fall. With autumn not officially starting until the 22nd of the this month, I'm well aware that it is technically still summer but I'm already in a fall kind of mood.

The kids are all starting to return to the classroom in the NYC area and I'm finishing up the last of my summer ballet classes this week. Monday marks the official start of the 2013-2014 dance school season for me. I can't wait! I'm hoping this dance season goes better than last. I was so tired and burnt out and didn't feel creative at all. I felt like I was just scraping by and didn't feel like I was being the best ballet teacher that I could have been for my students. My end of the year dances came out great and my bosses LOVED them but I wasn't happy with all of them. So...I'm well rested and ready to take the year by the horns!!!

With the end of the summer staring us in the face,  I wanted to take stock of the last couple of months. Personally, I didn't do nearly as many fun things as I wanted to do. With me working less, our monthly income was slightly lower so all of the fabulous things I wanted to buy and do had to wait until the end of the summer. I even just realized that I didn't do ANY outfit posts this summer!!! How is that possible??? Well, I never really went anywhere so fun or fancy that I thought a outfit post was in order. Sure, I went out and did things in my vintage but...taking photos of it was really the last thing on my mind. And the BIG thing I wanted to take pictures of, A Midsummer Night's Swing, got totally rained out the day we were supposed to go! I'm talking thunderstorm!  WHOOMP!!! The rest of my days were spent at home in day dresses or in the dance studio in leotards and tights. So...really, fashion was kind of boring for me this summer. Which was kind of a disappointment. Mostly, everything I bought were vintage wardrobe staples and not terribly fascinating...but at least I have them. So now, the wardrobe is starting to fill out. That makes me happy and excited!

But, I was able to get plenty of fun posts this summer. Even without the fashion. Which I'm actually super proud about! When I first started the blog I wanted to chronicle my vintage fashion journey but it has molded into something more than what I thought it would. I have discovered that I LOVE to research random things in history that happen to spark my interest. And it seems like everyone else likes those posts too. They really are some of my most read, so be expecting a lot more of those! I'm excited because I get to marry all of that information with my striving to be a "vintage girl" in modern NYC! FUN!!!

One thing I was excited about was the Housewife series I started. Goodness, that was so much fun. I got to live as a 1950s (or as close as I could get to the 50s) Housewife for 12 days. It was definitely an interesting process. It was weird to be home most of the day just...cleaning...grocery shopping...doing laundry... all of of the other millions of things that were on that housewife list. In the end I had to admit that I enjoyed it much more than I though I would. I really think I would be content to stay home and take care of my family when the time comes. I definitely had a since of accomplishment at the end of the whole project. The series will continue with other posts related to things of the "housewifery" (I think I just made up a word) nature.  Not all of them will be of me doing housewife things but they will be related to my quest for vintage domestic perfection.


My favorite history post of the summer was Growing up Strong on PET Milk.This post was about the Fultz quadruplets who were the poster children for PET milk in the 50s.  It was a story that I had never heard before and I'm not sure why! It's a great (but sad) tidbit of American history that should be told. I'm sure there are quite a few stories just like this one that have yet to be made public. It would be quite interesting to find them and research them.

My second favorite history post came just a few days ago. Black and White... was simply a photo post but it seemed to spark a lot of interest. Not only among you guys, my sisters in vintage, but with my family and friends. I even had a childhood friend comment on the post and share a great story about her mother seeing a black woman in a public restroom for the first time. And in our hometown! The post really resonated with people and I'm beyond proud of it!

Some of other favorite posts of the summer were:

Visions of 1950s Coats Dancing in My Head

A Cape Cod Home to Call Our Own: Window Shopping

Vali Myers: Painted Lady

and OF COURSE

Vintage Christmas Prep: 5 Months Til Christmas

Vintage Christmas Prep: 4 Months Til Christmas


So there you have it. The blogs summer in a nutshell. Although a mostly uneventful summer, I have to say it was a good one. I'll take a nice relaxing, relatively cool, summer break over a stressful, busy, hot one any day!!!

So, I bid adieu to the summer and welcome my absolute favorite part of the year with a new dress!!! YAY!!! Fall really inspires my wardrobe choices which makes me want to shop, Shop, SHOP!!!! Hurry up cool weather!!!!! I'm starting to become impatient!


How did your summer turn out?????


xoxo

PS! Jessica over at Chronically Vintage has an amazing giveaway going on!!! She is giving away a hat from Blue Rose Vintage! A free hat?? Ummm... yes please!!! How faboo is that? Head on over so that you don't miss out!!!!