Julia & Paul Child Valentines Tradition

I recently finished reading My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud'homme. Julia's humor and wit delighted me throughout the book. One of my favorite parts in the book are the photos of the valentines that her and her husband Paul would send out each year.

Here's an excerpt from the book with Julia Child describing the valentines:

"Come February, all of our time off was spent composing letters for the hundreds of valentines we sent out around the globe. Valentine cards had become a tradition of ours, born of the fact that we could never get ourselves organized in time to send out Christmas cards. With our ever-enlarging network of family, friends, and Foreign Service colleagues, we found that Paul's hand-designed valentine cards-usually a woodcut or drawing, sometimes a photograph-were a nice way to keep in touch. But they could be labor-intensive. One year's design was a faux stained-glass window, with five colors in it, each of which had to be hand-painted in watercolors-which took hours. For 1956, we decided to lighten up by doing something different: we posed ourselves for a self-timed valentine photo in the bathtub, wearing nothing but artfully placed soap bubbles".

You can purchase a copy of the "Julia & Paul Child Valentine's Card Bubble Bath" for $25- over at i-concepts

You can purchase My Life in France for $8.95 over at Powell's Books

The Winner of Vintage Notions is...

The winner of a copy of Amy Barickman's book Vintage Notions is Tracy H with the comment:

"I absolutely LOVE vintage fabric, notions and whatnot! I enjoy going to second hand thrift stores and auctions to find vintage material, notions and stuff for my projects. My Granny taught me how to sew, crochet and knit when I was a child in the 70's & 80's. I loved to sew with her by my side. She made many of my clothes and my doll clothes for me as I was growing up through the years. Later, when I was a teen she used the scrap material from all the things she had made me to piece together a quilt for me. It is my favorite one that she has made for me. I have 3 daughters and they love crafting with vintage things just as I do. I have recently gotten into quilting and I love creating quilts from vintage patterns. I grab every magazine I can that has vintage items/patterns in it so I can get ideas".

"My favorite recipes are the old family ones that have been passed down to me by my grandmothers that have.....a pinch of this or a dash of that in the ingredients list ;). It was a slower paced lifestyle when I was a kid and we took time to savor it. I want my girls to have those same memories"...

Thanks to all who entered, and a big thanks to Amy Barickman for her book!

*Amy Barickman's Vintage Notions Book Giveaway*

Amy Barickman kindly sent me two copies of her latest book Vintage Notions One copy to keep and one copy to giveaway!

*You can enter to win Vintage Notions by leaving a comment on this post about your love of vintage inspired sewing, crafting, cooking, and living*

*The winner will be announced on Monday, July 25th*

Vintage Notions is a wonderful book that features select articles from Mary Brook Picken's Inspiration and Fashion Services newsletters that were originally published from 1916-1934.

Amy Barickman has divided each of the chapters in the book into the months of the year. She opens each chapter with "Modern Notions" her personal modern take on the vintage advice and articles that are featured for that month.

The book is filled with delightful vintage illustrations and advice. In flipping through the book my favorite idea that I have come across so far is "Men's Shirts Put to Feminine Use" in which we are given instructions on how to turn Men's shirts into aprons. I am looking forward to a fun and inspiring time as I read Vintage Notions from cover to cover.

To purchase a copy of Amy Barickman's Vintage Notions head over to Indygo Junction

To learn more about Amy Barickman check out her website

Holidays on Display

I recently bought this book Holidays on Display at Powell's. I have been enjoying reading about how holiday window decorating originated. Department stores would devote a large sum of money for decorating their windows and the insides of their stores with elaborate holiday themes.

The heyday of elaborate holiday window displays peaked before I was born- so, unfortunately I was not able to interact with any of these grandiose displays. I know that I would have been enchanted.

Nowadays the art of holiday window decorating is all but lost here in Portland. The bright and inventive spot in store windows here is the Anthropologie store in downtown. It features an incredible twisted tree that looks to be fashioned out of brown waxy paper. The tree has a little door and there are rabbits and snow at the foot of the tree.

I Heart Powell's Books

Part of what I love about the location of my store is it's proximity to Powell's Books.When I opened my store I looked forward to all of the time I would be able to spend perusing the aisles of Powell's. Unfortunately I have been too busy to do anything other than drop by quickly and pick something up. Later today my dream of taking some time and wandering the aisles is going to come true. I close today at 4:00 and then I am going to run some errands and enjoy some time at Powell's.

What makes Powell's so great you may ask? It is gigantic and houses a huge collection of books on every topic imaginable. My favorite areas are the Fashion, Antiques, Interiors, Crafts book area as well as the Art, Architecture and Design section.

I have been shopping at Powell's ever since I was a child when my parents would take me to the Beaverton store location. For every birthday and Christmas my dad gives me a gift certificate to Powell's.

Check out Powell's City of Books located at 1005 West Burnside in Portland, Oregon or browse and shop online

Cool Women

The other day Chris and I were at a thrift store when I came across an apron from the 1980's that said, "I went to four years of college for this?" I thought about whether or not to buy the apron to resell. But, then I thought how awful it would be if someone bought it seriously, feeling that they identified with what it said, that they were laden with housework and child care instead of using their education. I expressed this to Chris and he agreed with what I said. He also thought that the other type of person who would be buying it would be someone who would give it as a "gag" gift. Someone poking fun at their friend for becoming a housewife. In the end I decided that the apron was too depressing and that I didn't want to be the one passing it along.

What females of all ages need are good role models. A couple of months ago I bought a book called Cool Women from a local thrift store. It's a book from Scholastic intended for school girls. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and feel that it's a great inspirational read for anyone. You can read about strong women that you probably already know of like Harriet Tubman, Georgia O'Keefe, Annie Oakley, Joan of Arc, Madame Curie as well as learn about strong women you may have never heard of.

This book is available used from $1.99 over at Amazon

Greta Garbo in Mata Hari & Four Fabulous Faces

Some people share their birthday with Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn or Myrna Loy, I share mine with Mata Hari. I never really knew much about her other than she was a femme fatale spy.

Last night we watched the 1931 Mata Hari movie which stars Greta Garbo. This film is loosely based on Mata Hari's life. Garbo plays such a mesmerizing version of Mata Hari that you don't really care if it's accurate or not. This movie had me gasping with amazement at some of the lavish, decadent over the top outfits that Garbo was wearing including an outfit that involved intriguing gold lame leggings or tights (you can check out a film clip featuring the ensemble on You Tube, look closely at how sensuously she closes the curtains towards the end of the clip [Garbo's gowns were designed by Adrian]). Greta Garbo's beauty and talent shine in this movie.

Speaking of the beauty of Garbo, I was lucky enough to come across an incredible hardback book titled Four Fabulous Faces, which contains tons of photos of Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford and Gloria Swanson. I have only just begun ogling this weighty tome, and so far it proves to be fascinating.

For any Silver Screen and Old Hollywood fan I would most definitely recommend watching Mata Hari and reading Four Fabulous Faces.

The Winners of The Kitchen Linens Book Giveaway are...

HeidiAnn of Gold Country Girls and Kristen of Shabby Vintage Mom

Thanks to everyone who entered! Be sure to check back for future giveaways!

Check out the cute little button that you can get for your blog or website over at Apron Memories...

*The Kitchen Linens Book Giveaway*

I have two autographed copies of EllynAnne Geisel's latest book The Kitchen Linens Book to giveaway!!!

*You can enter to win one of the books by leaving a comment about your love of vintage kitchen linens*

The Kitchen Linens Book features wonderful graphics and photos, EllynAnne's recollections of kitchen linens that have played a roll in her life, as well as other people's memories of kitchen linens, old fashioned recipes, a section of projects for "Reinventing Kitchen Linens", fabric care instructions, and an incredibly cute Butterick Transfer Pattern for creating your own fun retro style kitchen linens!

Thanks to Tammie over at Andrews McMeel for providing copies of the book for me to review and giveaway!

***Leave me your vintage kitchen linen comments and two winners will be announced on Tuesday, March 17th**

Bakelite Jewelry- The Art of the Carver

Bakelite Jewelry by Lyn Tortoriello and Deborah Lyons features over 1,000 pieces of Bakelite jewelry from the 1930's and the 1940's.

The book informs you as to which items of jewelry and what colors are most highly valued, it gives you tips on how to avoid fakes, as well as listing current values for Bakelite jewelry.

Bakelite Jewelry features gorgeous photos of a rainbow of Bakelite colors and styles that range from simple to intricately carved designs.

You can purchase the book Bakelite Jewelry over at Schiffer Books