Vintage Hat Love. Bring Hats Back.

 You may or may not already know how much I love vintage hats.  

This morning I had some spare time to browse Etsy's lovely listings and these are my favourites at the moment.   If I had to just pick one, I think it's the first green one, in the top left corner.

 Which would you choose?

Also, I got my hair done again last week and I've been wearing this green vintage hat a lot this winter.  So here's a snap of that. 

 I saw this picture and was amazed at how the light fixture in our dining room doesn't look half bad.  I hate it in person.  Ahhh there's nothing that can't look good out of focus ;)
How's your week so far?

Bring Hats Back.

Over the past couple years I've stumbled upon and fallen for some beautiful vintage hats. 

They make me wish 3 things.  

1.  That people wore hats more often, and generally dressed nicer.

2.  That I had a head of perfectly placed 1940's curly hair.
3.  That it wasn't so windy outside. 

The other day, I was ambitious enough to face these 3 wishes and took a hat down and wore it. haha!

I found this hat while thrifting in my hometown.
I wore it with a simple brown sweater and one of my fave skirts that I bought years ago in NYC. 

 I always get a kick out of what's written inside the hats.  This one says "Finest Imported Velour," which has a nicer ring to it than Made in China, doesn't it?

There is no information about where it was made, but the detail in the shapes is beautiful, and the netting is really delicate.

Have you got hats?  Do you wear them?  Any interest in seeing more of mine?
Have a great Friday!

~mel

p.s. you can also see the hat in action here

My fave bookshelf & Vintage Enamel Flower Brooches

Welcome to my favourite (so far) part of our apartment.  

This little bookshelf is home to some of the prettiest things I own. 

The painting was from my mom, who thrifted it. (go mom!)

On the bottom shelf are my scrapbooks, vintage fashion magazines and boxes of photos.

2nd shelf has photo albums, data discs storing photobackups, an old Pentaz SLR and an ice cream cone that is actually a bubble blower.
Above that we have my 2 polaroid cameras (post about them to come) and the typewriter in my favourite color that I found at a yard sale for $7.

Then we've got a vintage globe, (the first of a hopeful collection - I love inaccurate geography.) my lomography camera, the camera from my grandpa (story here) and my vintage flower pins. 

 They were a little dusty yesterday, so I cleaned them up and then did a little photoshoot :)

They've all been thrifted over the past 6-7 years, never bought online, only found surprises at yard sales and good will shops.  I find it more exciting of a collection that way, they're all found treasures. 

Tonight my friends are hosting an outdoor movie night in their backyard E.T. & Jaws under the stars.  What are you up to this weekend? I hope it's a good one!

thrift shopping - things i did buy :)

 I realized this evening that it has been eons since I've posted any vintage love.  I haven't stopped hunting.  There was a period of time when I tried not to buy anything just before moving - but now we have an apartment with nothing in it, and I get to slowly fill it up :)
First - the cabinet.  I saw this at the goodwill and couldn't pass it up.  Steve doesn't really like it, but I think I'll paint the legs and handles and it'll be fine.  It was $15 and fits our records perfectly.
Speaking of which, we've started collecting records.

 My first purchase on vinyl was meant to be - my favourite Bowie song. (insane 80's video btw)

 Little trinkets.  The "London Bus" is a piggy bank.  Does anyone else still use them? I love them, and rolling coins is a guilty pleasure, oddly enough.  The lamp I scored at a yard sale down the street from our new place.  It was $5.  It had a hideous dusty rose shade on it that smelled like 1000 cartons of cigarettes, I told the woman she could have it back.  Looking for the perfect shade - maybe white or teal?

And my fave items - 2 super cute glasses with pink flowers, and a vintage enamel flower brooch to add to my collection :)

Hope you enjoyed a tiny peek at our new apt.  I will have to show you more as we get more settled.
Have a great weekend!

8.5 down. 13.5 to go.

well, it's september! another month and the summer gone.
august was busy - i had a lot of family in town visiting, my brother's, dad's and sister's birthdays - lots of bbq's and sunshine.
today it's rainy and cold, which means i can blog. haha.
as for goal progress this month, i get a half point.
1/2 goal accomplished:
make rainbow cupcakes and waffle cookies

rainbowcupcakeswm, originally uploaded by melaniegodecki.

i made these for my sister's birthday.
all you do is take whichever cake batter you prefer (i used lemon) and divide it into 6 bowls. add food colouring to each to make purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red cake batter.
fill the cupcake liners by layering the colours, then bake as usual.

it took a lot longer to get them to the oven than a plain cupcake, but they were so fun to crack open!

otherwise i did do a photoshoot this month, with an old friend lindsay.  we grabbed a bunch of my vintage shopping scores and headed to Pioneer Village in Thunder Bay.  It's one of those recreated-town-museums and had loads of interesting old things to look at.  

she also has a love for angels, so we thought we'd give that a try.

here is what the goal list is looking like right now:

and on another note i did accomplish some other things in august - i packed up all of my belongings and shipped them to toronto (where i now live) and i finally got my driver's licence!

i know, i know, i am nearly 28 and now i can finally drive, just before moving to a big city where i'll never have a car.  haha! anyway, that felt good, it's been a long time coming.  

i have to return to job hunting for my new big city life.  hopefully more blogging soon!

love mel

thrift shopping - things i didn't buy

 another edition of the treasures at cannes' flea market :)

crazy marionettes

every war and battle imaginable

this doll would scare me as a child! she scares me now!

if these weren't so expensive.... *le sigh

p.s. happy mother's day all!

Bon poisson d'avril!

happy "April Fish" if you translate it directly...

today in france is similar to april fool's day in north america, with tricks and jokes

but they also have a cute tradition that we don't!

i'm not sure on the history of the fish - children will cut out fish shapes and tape them on each others backs with jokes, teasing remarks, etc. on them.  

i asked my high school students if they do anything and yes, they will sneak notes onto people's backs in a not-so-pleasant and more-like-high-school manner. not so cute.

fill in the blank - i am _______.

at the end of the day i noticed a little fish fall to the floor, facedown.

uh oh.  i don't work with cute little gradeschoolers!

but look!

"i am beautiful." awww! i was so excited!

it may relate to what i was originally going to post today...?

i love seeing other people's wardrobe posts, and this is a little bit DIY too.

i bought this little shirt at a thrift store - totally vintage, a bit ho-hum...

so i changed the buttons and it got some drama ;)

which took 10 minutes and was entirely worth it.

 love my floral tights :)

shopping stats: necklace, shirt, buttons - thrifted in france

headband - dollarama, lol.  skirt - joe fresh (love!)

boots - L&B (france.) belt - Mim (france.)

tights - random corner shop in cannes that used to be a candy shop, was an accessories place for a couple months, then luggage and is now under construction. 

yes, i have only been here since september.

anyway, that's what i wore today.

hope you had a happy 1st of april!

thrift shopping - things i did buy

slowly over the past 6 months I've been finding little treasures while thrift shopping. 

here's part 1 of things i did buy - buttons.  i usually find 3-4 per adventure.

it was fun to do a colourful little photoshoot with them on today's rainy day.

 

hope you like buttons as much as i do :)

love mel

thrift shopping - things i didn't buy

here are some more treasures from monday thrift hunting adventures :)

silver forks & spoons

i really like this yellow desk

random shoe vase - it reminds me of venice

old ship something-or-other-dial...lol what do you call this?

vintage hotel desk bells (and my reflection)

almanac from 1917

i feel if i had these chairs i would have to watch more science fiction movies in them.

and this i think would be dangerous.  who wants to see marilyn monroe beside them every time they look in the mirror? clearly that's why she's being sold ;)

p.s. coming soon - things i did buy :)