1930s - 1950s Womens Weekly are now available online

The National Library of Australia has just finished digitising hundreds of editions of the Australian Womens' Weekly magazine from the 1930s onwards - and you can view them all online (contents too, not just the cover art!) You can even save each issue as a PDF for your own personal collection.

Images taken from the Australian Women's Weekly , Saturday 4 October 1947 issue

The coverage is a little sparse in the late 1930s, but the 1940s and 1950s are well represented. I didn't look at anything later than the 1950s though, as I'm not really interested in that. It would be cool to see what was in fashion around the time I was born (in an "oh-my-God-they-really-wore-that?" kind of way), but their records only go up to 1982, and I'm a 1984 baby.

Click here to view the digitised copies of the Australian Womens' Weekly on Trove here, and happy reading!

The XP Ford Wagon

This is the other classic car in our family - a 1965 Ford XP wagon. It's J's - it was his very first car, and he drove it every day for years. Unfortunately the poor girl is a bit sad and sorry at the moment - she needs new heads, because J got a bit slack in adding Valve Saver to his fuel (old cars were designed to run on leaded, not unleaded petrol). So he pushed her out of the garage and pressure washed her down, so hopefully he will get his bum into gear and start repairing her!

1950s suit from eBay

Heels from eBay

Seamed stockings from eBay (wow - lots of eBay today!)

Kiss Me Deadly Vargas girdle dress underneath

FYI - I took these photos just before I left for work this morning at 6:30am, and it was freezing - so much for it being November (which should warm this time of year - don't forget I'm in the Southern Hemisphere). My stockings and feet were soaking wet from the dew, the car was covered in dew, but it was a lovely sunrise!

They come in threes

It's over (I think)! I sat my final exam yesterday, and I am about 80% confident that I passed. Now I have to endure an agonising month-long wait to hear my results. It's just such a relief that I can now return to normal life!

So what does one do in normal life? Buy vintage. Oh yes, and I also believe I owe you a surprise or three.

1) Remember the little giveaway I had a few weeks back - well, the lass who won has failed to contact me, so I have redrawn it and the winner is:

Kerri @ OldLadyChic. Leave a comment with your address, Kerri - I won't publish it up for the world to see, promise!

2) I am nearing 100 followers, and I am also nearing this blog's two year anniversary. So that calls for another giveaway! To celebrate this momentous occassion, I will be giving away a $50 gift voucher to your choice of vintage seller on etsy. Yep, you heard right. Stay tuned.

3) And finally, the surprise announcement I mentioned before disappearing into my study-cave last week.... I am opening an online store! It will only have authentic 1940s to early 1960s garb, and most of the items will cater to us curvier ladies (waist sizes 30" and up). It will be hosted on this site, and I am playing around with some HTML and JavaScript right now, so things might look a little strange for a moment or two. I aim to open the store in January next year - I plan on starting small and will hopefully build it up.

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Right, now all that is out of the way, want to see my purchases? (They're partial shots so I still have something exciting to show you when they arrive.)

1950s dress and hat, from simplicityisbliss

Mary gets a haircut

There hasn't been a whole lot of excitement in my neck of the woods lately, as I am busy studying for my upcoming exam (a week yesterday - eep). Just for your information, Project Management is no fun.

Once my exam is over, I may have some very exciting news to announce to the world, but I am afraid I must make you wait until then. Oh, and I'm not pregnant, if that is what you were thinking! I'm way too busy keeping up with my four-legged kids.

And this four-legged kid had her very first all-over haircut yesterday. She certainly looks a whole lot different without inches and inches of wool. The blue stuff is a backline treatment for lice, and she was also drenched (for worms) and had a pedicure. Now we can't help but giggle every time we see her.

Brando, the little darling, also had an eventful day yesterday, with a drench, a backline treatment, a quick dagging (where we found a tiny bit of flystrike), and he had his tail docked (a very tight elastic band is placed on the tail to cut off circulation, so the tail dies and drops off).

If you have never seen a lamb react to being docked, YouTube it if you dare. They squirm, they bleat, they roll around - for an hour or so until the pain subsides. Brando was a downright sook, and he refused to come anywhere near me for the entire evening - he even didn't want his bottle of milk for tea! My grandfather wanted to castrate him as well, but we want him to be a manly man (and so he and Mary can produce lambs of their own in future). I nearly had to tackle the pliers out of my grandfather's hands though.

I might not get a chance to post now until after my exam, so enjoy your week, and I shall hopefully have some wonderful news to share with you soon.

A perfect day

I hope everybody is having as great a day as I am. And it is only noon! First and foremost, my outfit.

Knit - thrifted

Wool skirt - thrifted

Shoes - ASOS
(and water from the creek, care of my puppy who decided to shake off mid-picture!)
(the barn pictured is on our property, from the late 1800s) 

The first thing I did this morning (apart from being woken up at 6am by a noisy, hungry lamb, and then setting my hair with hot rollers) was I headed to a church fete in the nearby tiny town of Batesford. I went purely to buy a delicious sponge cake, made by one of the parishoners. Most of my relatives go to this church, so it was great to catch up with my Great Aunties and Uncles, as well as the other folk. So, I bought a beautiful sponge and a bottle of Mrs. M's homemade tomato sauce.

Then it was off to the local Farmers' Market for honey, strawberries and some punnets of mixed lettuce seedlings.

And finally, onto the annual Bannockburn Antique Fair - where I made the greatest purchases (in my opinion). I bought:

♥ Five wave clips for $8 - no idea on age - perhaps 1930s-40s? Anyone care to help me out her? I can only make out the word "Pain, 17258". Perhaps pain represents how comfortable they are to sleep in? Tee hee.

♥ Australian Home Journal, July 1949 and Glamour, January 1948. These two cost $5 total, and the Home Journal magazine comes complete with an uncut pattern for the three dresses seen on the cover! Granted, they are in the wrong size for me, but I don't care... these are going into my collection. The Glamour mag has beautiful colour images too, which is why I bought it.

♥ Ice-o-mat ice crusher. This little gizmo set me back $28. I have no idea if that is reasonable, but it will match my fridge (once I get it painted), so it now sits proudly on my counter top. I'm guessing it is early-mid 1960s?

Now I am listening to a Best Of 1940s record on my record player that I finally pulled down from the cupboard, and soon I will pop out into the garden to plant my lettuce seedlings and some spring onion bulbs I got for free from Freecycle. My veggie patch is going wonderfully - I have harvested about 4kg of broccoli, two great big bunches of spring onion, and some curly Dutch carrots (my soil wasn't fine enough, it seems).

Cheerio, and enjoy your weekend everybody!

Finally... the sweater!

I know it has been a long time, but remember this sweater I posted way back in April? Well my good friend Alice has finished sewing it, and it is now being proudly displayed in the window display of an awesome little knitting supplies store! Isn't it wonderful?