VINTAGE: A "Nostagic" Generation?

I stumbled across this BBC on-line article regarding the recent development into the "obsession" and increased promotion of nostalgia and vintage into everyday life. It's popularity growth is aided not only by advertising, but through an apparent "sickness" and desire for the past, a longing for a better time, which isn't so apparently suffering with economic downturns, terrorism and social upheaval.

Or maybe it's just the current "in" thing. Just a passing phase?

Its all to easy to say we, and i'm using the BBC grouping as those of us who reached adulthood during the 1990's and 2000s, look back on say the 1930s or the 1960s wearing rose tinted glasses. Anchored in a world of tension we reflect upon previous decades for what they were, what they had, albeit through rose tinted glasses - something that rarely enters the nostalgic equation.

I know personally that I adore the 1930s, it's just my era. But it would be all to easy to be lost in the glamour of the fashion, of the stars and films of Astaire, Leigh, or even Tierney to name but three without passing an eye to the memory of the economic depression, the social upheaval and the dawn of the Second World War. You have to take the good with the bad, you can't be blindfolded against the negative, because equally it comes to shape the era just as much, possibly even more then the positive. Yet today's society allows us, anyone to reflect through endless TV documentaries, the internet and visual signs upon these lost decades, allowing us a glimpse and a hope of making them real once more.

But this reflection doesn't have to be for the era of your grandparents, it could just be for the 1980s, from your Victorian christening robe to your 1980 shoulder pads. To be "into" nostalgia, according to the BBC article is to feel better about yourself, to return to this former time especially considering the routine and the tedium of contemporary life, of rush rush rushing around.

I don't personally adore vintage life, vintage finds, vintage things because it makes me feel better about myself, I just feel its just where I actually fit in. Maybe I just don't fit in with contemporary life - yet I say this and I know I don't have traditional social outlooks - in that manner i'm very "now". I love vintage finds, because it is who I am. Maybe I am rather lost in today's society. While I don't dress vintage, at least not yet - work doesn't really allow that, I still lose myself in the life and the times of the 1930s - that is my era.

I guess i'm just a magpie.

If you want to have a look at the article for yourself you can here upon the BBC. Would be great to hear your views on it too! Why do you think nostalgic reflections are growing in popularity?

LIFE: Seaside Dreams

I dream of ...

Snuggling by the fire

Building sandcastles

Eating fish & chips out of their wrapper on the seafront

Writing in the sand

What are all your dreams right now?

Wooden Hearts

From the season of being jolly to the season and day of love - I guess everyone's attention goes to that day of love. I get in two minds about the day - its totally over commercialised and love and treats should be given all throughout the year rather then on just one. But maybe its just good for some absent minded lovers to be reminded of the importance of their partner.

Down that old, over crowded with tourists lurking, cameras in hand, pushing and shoving streets called York in the Shambles is a little little shop E.J. Freeborn & Son, a little shop selling wooden gifts alongside restoring and making furniture.

A quick peer into the window showed the display of fruitwood engraved wooden love hearts, worded with cute little notes 0f "I love you", "Be my valentine", "Forever Friends" and "I miss you". They are gorgeously soft and smooth to the touch, each with their own little distinctive natural patterning. Alongside these a basket of varying sizes from micro to large of plain love hearts.
If you're looking for something simple yet meaningful these kind of gifts are along the right lines. Too many people [i'm a bit cynical] spend too much money in an attempt to try and prove something, to prove their love, or to make things better. It's not about how much money you spend, or what you do. You shouldn't have to buy something to prove it, you shouldn't just do it one time a year.

Lush Toner Waters and Helping Hands Girlie Treats

My blogging might become a bit hit and miss for a while - I kind of need to sort my head out a little and try and fix myself up in a proper job that doesn't make me feel like i'm wasting my degree or knackers me out mid week. I'm caught between the battle of saving money and saving myself and I guess my blog distracts me too much, I blog when i'm meant to be doing job applications or hunting for them. But fear not i'll still be around and i'll still post and comment. Or at least I need to work out how to multi task, but anyway I've managed the draft of an application so here we go back to blogging ...

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But back to business;

My latest treat was two lovely things from Lush. People do really really rave about this shop mainly because they are all handmade, fresh, organic and just smell super yum. While I love their bath bombs and their shampoos, I've had a mixed experience with their conditioners which just left my hair ultra greasy, I've always been a bit iffy about trying things, I guess sometimes its due to the cost. But I need to treat myself every once in a while, so I did and I brought;

[Tea Tree Toner and Helping Hands]

The Tea Tree Toner Popular Water [costing £3.25 for 100mg] is designed specifically for oily to normal skin - skin which normally would be more spot prone for using such products. To be used within your beauty routine after your cleanser, this spray offers a refreshing and ultra clean way to tone your skin using grapefruit and juniper berry waters. The smell is powerful, not to say its so overpowering you can't use it, but it is there, nevertheless this toner is brilliant for removing stubborn make-up, especially eye-liner and mascara that I've found that often more cheaper toners have issues with properly removing. However any issues with the smell is overcome with the freshness and silky clean shine upon your skin.

This isn't to say that a toner is the key alone. For a good toner to work, you need to use a good cleanser and in time I do plan on blogging about the need for the contemporary reinvention of the cold cream as the dream cleanser.

I know I've blogged before about my horridly dry hands before and i'm constantly open to new products to have a go with, so I kinda of got very tempted into trying this Helping Hands hand cream;
And yes it does look as yummy as the image suggests. At £6.10 for 100g it isn't the cheapest hand-cream compared to other high street versions and I was planning originally on trying the Palmer's hand cream. But I saw this and, with the chamomile and honey moisture to soften and nourish, almond oil, shea and cocoa butter base to add even more moisture, I kinda had to try.

It really does work. You don't need much - it goes far and like the toner it has a bit of an odd smell. But its makes my hands more softer and "normal" then anything I've tried before, it even helps with cuts and the redness I often get over my knuckles.

In the newspaper they always offer you when you end up at the till, I spied in the retro part the Ginger Fragrance which they described as "a light and lovely scent with a rich rosy heart and spicy scent that dance all around you. Picture it with Fred Astaire". But an online/postal order only and £30.15 for 40g has anyone ever tried it? Smelt it? Recommends it?