Of course, since last Wednesday when I was notified of my new job, all I can really think about is my new job and moving. Every spare minute has been spent lusting over new work clothes or things I'd like to get for our new home, even though we haven't found it yet. We decided it would be best for us to move April 1, so I'll be commuting an hour every day for the first two weeks, which really isn't that bad.

But, let's get back to pretty things, shall we? If you follow me on Pintrest, you'll likely have seen these already, as I've been using it as a great inspiration board and bookmarking system.

i-mego Retro Headphones - $99

As a digital journalist, I'll be doing a lot of work with audio and video, which means good quality headphones are a must. These ones not only keep with my retro aesthetic, but actually got some pretty decent reviews.

Sunny Is Power Solar Travel Charger - $35.99 via ModCloth

I am going to be pretty mobile, so being able to charge up without having to have a plug in would be a great asset. Yes, I could just be consciousof my battery life, but sometimes things like that slip my mind.

Tasty Trio Tiffin Box in Light Lunch - $40 from ModCloth

In Camrose, I can take my lunch break at home without a problem, but in Edmonton it will be way too much of a headache. I love this tiffin box in my favourite colours (it's melamine!) and even though you can't microwave the sections, I don't anticipate it holding me back much. I am actually just going to go ahead and order this right now!

Soft Serve Heel in Burgundy - $60 from Modcloth

I absolutely need shoes with low heels for those times I am on my feet all day, and these definitley fit the bill - and with a chunky heel to boot! Now if only they didn't cost an arm and a leg.

Neap Tide Heel - $35 from Modcloth

I would match my tiffin box! I am so in love with teal and turquoise that I'm starting to concern myself. I'm really sad these are out of stock at the moment or else I would snatch it up!

Satchel Bag - $14.95 from H&M

News to Me Wallet - $30 from ModCloth

Peplum Squad Top - $38 from ModCloth

I am such a sucker for Peter Pan collars. I'm not sure how a peplum would look on me, however, so that is holding me back.

Dress - $35 from H&M

H&M is such a guilty pleasure for me. I am certainly going to keep and eye out for this dress next time I'm in the city. It looks so cure and summery.

Dress - $35 from H&M

This and the dress below are more dressy than the first H&M dress, but I think they'd be great for summer.

Dress - $30 from H&M

I'm not so sure how I would fair with white though... I am a bit of a slob.

Coach Tour Top in Sand - $38 from ModCloth

More peplum! Although I think this is a little less pronounced. I typically don't like things too high up on my neck, but I'm willing to take a chance on this one.

It's official, I'm changing jobs.


Starting March 18, I'll be the digital reporter for Metro Edmonton, a free daily newspaper in Edmonton. There are Metros all around the world, so even if you're not an Alberta reader you may recognize the name.

It's a brand new position, and I'll be joining a staff of two other female reporters where I'll be working mostly on stories tailored for the web, using multi-media elements (video, photo galleries etc). Basically, it's my dream job and you have no idea how excited I am.

I fully intend on continue channelling His Girl Friday. Photo from here

I'm also excited because we're moving back to Edmonton. I love Camrose and it will always have a special place in my heart, but Edmonton is a great city to start the next chapter in. Besides the fact that the wonderful Miss Bee is also a resident of the same city, it's the place where G was born and raised and where we met. I already know a lot about Edmonton so it's a much better fit.

I love the people I work with so much and it's sad to say goodbye. It's an amazing office to work with (if you are a journo and are interested in working in Camrose, please check out the job posting).

I will still be journeying back to Camrose from time to time. I really have to, since it has the most phenomenal vintage store I've ever been in and it's the only place my mom can find shoes in her size.

This is all very new, but I can't keep a secret very well (it's what makes me a great journalist). Besides this is such a life-changing thing that there's no way I'd be able to keep it out of the blog. Just be forewarned that the next month will be full of stories about packing, cleaning and moving.

So now starts the first part of this new chapter - househunting. Do we find a place for March and pay double rent (since I gave 30 days notice to my landlord on the 22, we can't be out financially until then) or do I commute back and forth for a few weeks until April? I guess we'll wait and see.

Happy Wednesday, or as I like to call it, discount chocolate day :D I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day, not matter what you are doing.

Today I want to share with you my first love. Before vintage and before journalism, I fell in love with Internet and technology.

I love being connected. Through the Internet - whether it's blogging, Twitter or internet forums - I have met some incredible people and had some great opportunities come my way thanks to technology.

But for some, to hear that a vintage gal loves technology might be a little bit of an oxymoron, but in fact it's the only way I even knew vintage was a "thing". Without it I would have never found my wonderful blogging friends or would even know how to perfect (not that I'm close to being there yet) my look.

Technology evolution has always been important, from the industrial revolution to wartime, but we get so caught up in technology now because it's rapidly changing before our eyes. It's funny in journalism how people panic about online journalism and how it will ever make money - I'm sure people wondered the same thing when radio and TV journalism first came on the scene.

I love living a vintage life, but you will never tear me away from my technology. They're like extra limbs! Here is a breakdown of my personal, day-to-day technology.


Smartphone

I mostly tweet on my phone

I have a HTC Legend smartphone that I bought the day before I turned 20 in 2010. This thing has been through thick and thin and has always been able to do some pretty great stuff. My only complaint is that sometimes it overheats (40 degrees Celsius!) which drains the battery life.
I use my cellphone for tweeting, reading the news while brushing my teeth, and of course texting and making phone calls. Also works great in a pinch for a recorder and a camera when I need it to - a must for my mobile-breaking-journalism days.

Tablet

Plug for my brother's blog.

I bought my tablet this summer after my old MacBook bit the dust. It has a keyboard dock too, but I've been using mostly the tablet part. I use the tablet for any sort of light computing I need to: reading blogs or ebooks, checking Facebook or looking something up. Before I got my new MacBook I also used it for typing things for work in a hurry, but no spell check really slowed me down. When I'm at home, I use my tablet the most out of these three, and find it really convent to be able to read or watch something without having a heavy laptop or squinting at tiny type on my phone.

Laptop

Vera, you may be the baby of my tech family but I love you.

I use my MacBook for all the stuff I can't do on my phone or tablet: typing out long messages or emails, blogging, photo and video editing and other heavy stuff. If I want to read something I'll probably just use my tablet, but it's great to have a 15" MacBook Pro for all the heavy duty stuff. G's laptop pretty much had a panic attack whenever I tried to blog and have Photoshop open at the same time, so it's awesome to have a machine that can keep up with me.


On that note, however, we don't have cable (we watch Netflix and online TV) and we don't have a big TV. We don't use our microwave that often (but we do have one) and we still probably read more paper books than e-books in our house.

What technology do you find crucial to your life? Are you as plugged in as me?

XO Laurie

As you may recall, I got Vintage Fashion: Collecting and Wearing Designer Classics by Emma Baxter-Wright for Christmas this year, but it's not until now that I've finally had time to review it. 


In terms of writing, I did find the book a little disjointed as every chapter has a different author. Some chapters, therefore, are not as detailed or organized the same as others. There were, however, so many beautiful colour (and black and white) photographs of period clothing as well as photos illustrating whole trends and outfits. 

Yes, a Valentine's post. It seems now that the automatic response to Valentine's day is to completely hate on it, but I honestly don't mind it. No, it's not the only day I show my love and affection for G and it's not made into a huge deal either. Last year we bought a dresser from Ikea on Valentine's Day; I'm not sure what our plans are this year except that I'm going to make red velvet cupcakes (from a box, I'm not that awesome) while listening to a lovey-dovey playlist. Here's some of the songs I tossed on it this morning:














 I hope you have a wonderful weekend and great Valentine's Day, not matter what you end up doing!

XO Laurie

I'm sure you can't tell a difference, but this is my first post from my new-to-me MacBook Pro! I used to have a MacBook before I started blogging, but she died in a tragic drinking and computing incident (lesson learned). I had been using G's Dell laptop, but to be honest it sucked and I much prefer the Mac interface. Thanks to a tax reassessment, I had the money to buy a new one. This is a refurbished 15 in MacBook pro, and it was about $850 cheaper than if I had bought it new. Sweet, eh?

Sorry to be quiet on the blogging front, we had a major breaking news story happen in our area that took my attention. Two RCMP officers (our top cops) were shot on a farm in my coverage area, so I had to run out and cover it - in heels and a skirt, naturally. You can find more information on CamroseCanadian.com if you're so inclined. Luckily yesterday was my day off, so I had a chance to relax (and I also did something very exciting that I can hopefully share with you soon!) and catch up on my sleep.

BUT! I did not just log in to brag about my awesome yet tiring week. I actually have something vintage-related to show you too. My mom forwarded me an email from a colleague of hers who heard that I was into vintage. Imagine my delight when I saw that it was a bunch of scans from a 1934 Christmas catalog. I don't know the source - if she had scanned them or found them on the Internet - but I still wanted to share them.

I love the hair!

I love the sporty ensembles at the top!

Aren't those fabulous? And such great quality too.

I have lots of posts I want to write, so here's hoping I have time soon! While I work this weekend I have a clean slate on Sunday (so far) and all I want to do is bake red velvet cupcakes for Valentine's Day and write a bunch of blog posts!

XO Laurie

Happy weekend all! I hope you are having a great lazy day doing whatever you want to be doing. I'll be spending the day knitting and watching the BBC TV series Land Girls (1 and 2), which I took out from the library. I've had a fairly busy weekend off, so I'm looking forward to laying on the couch doing nothing for a while!

Friday G and I went to Edmonton to celebrate our three-year anniversary. We went to the Telus World of Science Titanic exhibit, something we've been meaning to do for a while now but never got around to. You weren't allowed to take photos, but some are featured on the website. It was a great exhibit (we didn't do the accompanying Imax movie because it wasn't showing for another 90 minutes) but it was rather short. It's amazing how well these artifacts are preserved!

You also get a little card at the beginning that represented a passenger on the Titanic and then you look on the wall to see if you survived. G knew he was a goner right away because he was part of the band. I was a second-class passenger who was coming home to Canada after buying my wedding dress in England (I wish!) and it turns out I survived. No info on the dress, though.

After that, we went to dinner at the Keg because we had gift certificates burning a hole in our pocket. Neither of us had eaten there before but OH MY GOD was it good. Why did I wait 21 years to have fillet mignon?

Saturday we went to #yegmediacamp, which was a short day conference that brought web developers and journalists together. It was great and I learned a lot, but if you follow me on Twitter you probably heard me blather on about it enough already.

After that G went to visit a friend, so I met up with Miss Bee and we went to Sally Beauty. Again, WHY did I wait 21 years to go there? Granted I never cared about hair stuff much before I got into vintage, but my goodness it is amazing. I was not surprised when mt bill came to $95.

I went there with a dual purpose - to find a bun form so I can use it as a rat and to find some things for the Fedora Lounge Beauty Box, which is a box that travelles from lounger to lounger around the world. You take stuff out, put stuff in. I've never participated so I'm excited!

I'm not going to show what I bought for the box because there's no fun in that, but I did buy a few duplicates for myself. I still have a few of my favourite products I want to buy and put in as well.

My goodies for the beauty box

A hair comb, pony tails holder and a straight hair form

end papers, double prong clips, lottabody & bottle, butterfly clips to do waves

An incredibly soft bristle brush and a teasing brush

After shopping and dinner, we went to a Sugar Foot Stomp! I had lots of fun and I think most people assumed I knew how to swing dance because I was all dressed up. I was wearing my new petticoat, which was tons of fun to dance in! The only thing is that I didn't have appropriate footwear because I didn't know that I was going dancing when I came up to Edmonton, so I was just in my stockings.  I didn't get stepped on, but it was harder to do some of the moves because I didn't have any grip on the floor! (I didn't take any photos because I didn't have my camera on me.)

Then we went to Bee's house to watch Swing Kids (which I had never seen but was really good!) and paint our nails. She also spoiled me with gifts, that girl! She's too sweet :D

ALSO - Bee is having a giveaway once she reaches 100 followers. Have you followed her wonderful blog yet?

She found this 1943 Complete Book of Sewing and Complete Book of Crochet at Goodwill for $4. So I have to learn to crochet and sew now!



She also passed on this white trench coat, which will be a great spring jacket for me.



She also gave me her open bottom girdle. See what I said about her being too sweet? (I know this photo is way overblown, but it helps to see the detail).


Now I really need some rest. Ta-ta for now dolls!

XO Laurie

I can't believe it's already February. I feel like it was just New Year's Eve last week!
I thought I would do a follow-up on my new year resolutions. I know that February is when most people start to drop off in terms of their goals, but I feel that I'm still going strong on mine.

Take better outfit photos

I'm doing this! I bought a tripod and am getting much better at doing my own photos. G does them every once in a while, but there's no way I'm going back to the mirror shots.

More variety in posts


I'm doing this too! While I haven't done any events, I have done reviews, knitting updates and my first shot at embroidery as opposed to all shopping and outfit posts.


Be more social
I've been doing this too. I joined a knitting circle and have gotten to know the ladies there quite well and have hung out with Miss Bee on quite a few occasions. I am so busy and a homebody to boot, so I'm quite proud of this.

Spend more time with my family
I took a vacation to Saskatchewan to visit my parents and grandparents, and I hope to be back to see them soon! 

Clean ALL the things 

 I said I wanted to start following the Apartment Therapy list on how to clean your house in 20 minutes over 30 days, but it's begun to fall by the wayside. I will try harder! It's so much easier to do a little bit every day as opposed to one big cleaning spree.

Be healthy and happy 
I am walking more (I walk to the library at least once a week, and while that's not too far it's still better than driving) but I haven't made any effort to start swimming, yoga or cycling. Whoops. 

Another thing I am doing is continually making new goals for myself. If you follow me on Pinterest you can see my Goal pinboard. I've added new goals such as learning to sew and reading more. 

How are you doing with your New Year Resolutions?

xo Laurie