You guys know I have so many collections that I am constantly adding to and once again I have a new one to add to the mix. A new favorite of mine is collecting vintage chalkware which was a popular type of wall hanging in the 1950′s and 1960′s. There are so many fun designs out there and so far I have two different fish and some fruit that are now adorning the walls in my apartment. Even Joan on Mad Men has a set of sea-horse chalkware on her walls which look amazing. Below are some of my favorites from Ebay. There are a ton of great ones so get shopping!

Lauren

I have a real soft spot for vintage greetings cards and am always on the hunt for them when in antique shops. Their illustrations are just so cute and filled with so much joy and fun. My dream would be to amas a large collection of them and turn them into collages that I would frame and hang all over my apartment. I have yet to start this collection though because the cards I find are usually pretty expensive and would cost a ton for the purpose I want them for. Heres to hoping that I find a big box of them at an estate sale for 5 bucks. I am constantly looking though and found so many great cards on pinterest. Below are some of my favorites.

cute little vintage family

I need a pink poodle in my life

I am a sucker for all vintage Valentines Day cards

this hula girl is inspiring me to find a way to visit Hawaii soon

happy lion with his cocktail

would be the perfect party card to send all of your guests

loving these vintage Halloween costumes

the sweetest love note for your sweetest friend

Have a great Monday

Lauren

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1. vintage looking glasses at Anthro, I have the green one
2.  my girl kitty in costume on my desk
3. re worked vintage necklace by moi
4. a favorite vintage pattern from my 80′s dress
5 hand painted vintage watch necklace from the 6o’s
6. beautiful view in Austin, Texas
7. two-headed cat necklace bought at Catbird in NYC
8.  bottle wall at the Cathedral Of Junk
9. laying on a book makes him very tired
10. vintage chalkware frogs that would look so cute in any home
11. a vintage ad where the woman looks so much like my grandma it is weird
12. mini candles I bought for my closet and office

Lauren

I have had my mom’s vintage Moschino belt sitting in my closet for a few years unworn. I thought the belt was really cute but it was way to heavy to wear and looked a little much with two strands of chain. So finally I had the idea to do a DIY on it and make it wearable. This project is super easy and probably took less than 20 minutes to create. i decided to break the belt into two so I could have a belt and a necklace.

Materials:
1. belt
2. Jewelry pliers
3. lobster clasp
4.  4 jump rings
5. Chain
6. Ruler

Here is the belt before I did any work to it. I decided to remove the chain with the charms which will be used for my necklace. Now that the belt is only one strand I actually love it. It is not heavy anymore and will look really cute with lots of different dresses.

Using your jewelry pliers open the jump rings on the belt to remove the smaller chain from it. Now that they are in two pieces the belt portion is ready for wear.

Here is the necklace portion from the belt I will be working with. I love the charms on it which are so Moschino! I measured the chain and it is 15 inches in length which is too small for a necklace of my liking. I decided to add some vintage chain to it to make it wearable.

I decided I wanted the total length of my necklace to be 19 inches. The leather chain measured 15 inches so I needed to add an extra four inches in gold chain. I cut the gold chain into two two inch gold segments that I would attach to each side of the leather chain.

Open your jump ring and attach it to the clasp on the leather chain part with your gold tone chain. Do this to both ends of the leather chain and close your rings so they stay connected.

It is time to put the finishing touches on the necklace. On the left side of the necklace attach a jump ring and clasp to the chain and close. On your right side attach only a jump ring and close.

This necklace hits around my collar-bone. I love how the chain only shows at the back of my neck so from the front it looks like my necklace is all leather.

This was such a fun DIY I should have done it years ago!

Lauren

I had a great time pretend acting as personal shopper to both Megan and Betty from Mad Men. For the last in this series I of course had to work with Joan and found both vintage and modern items to dress her in. Joan is definitely one of my favorite characters on the show. I love how confident she is around both men and women. It is so refreshing to see a woman on T.V. who is not a stick figure and actually looks like a woman should look. I love how she chooses to wear clothing that shows off her figure rather than hide it. And I love how you can always find her in bright colors and her signature pencil necklace while in the office. Below are the items I chose for Joan. Click on my pinterest board for links on where to buy them.

Dresses

I am a big fan of the wiggle dress. I love how it is sexy but not over the top and it shows off the right parts of a womans figure. Joan always looks amazing in them.

Shoes and Purses

For Joans accessories I used a mixture of both vintage and modern staying true to her style. I went bold with color to give her outfits a punch.

Jewels

For jewelry I used all vintage costume and chose pieces that were statement makers in the red, blue, green, and coral family. Those colors look amazing with her bright red hair.

Lauren

I love watching the show Million Dollar Listing seeing all of the beautiful and crazy expensive homes in Los Angeles. My favorite part of the show though is Edith Flagg, Josh’s grandmother. She has the cutest personality, a really crazy condo, and was a clothing designer from the 1950′s through the 90′s. When I heard that I ran to my Ipad to check out her designs. And found so many vintage ones on Etsy for sale. Below are some of my favorites. I really hope I find some of her dresses from the 60′s when I am out on a thrifting adventure.

so unusual to see a tropical print in a brown shade from the 1960′s

1970′s floral maxi dress.

love the crazy pattern and colors of this 60′s dress

1960′s green dress with built-in scarf collar

1960′s day dress with matching coat

love the embellished sleeves on this 70′s dress

60′s wiggle dress that I can see Joan from Mad Men wearing

1970′s polka dot maxi. I really like how the different patterns of dots work so well together

Lauren

Happy Monday,

I am definitely over seeing girls with ombre hair. You know the coppery shade that so many girls have had the last couple years. It is just to trendy for me. I do however, love ombre pastel shades. That I can not get enough of and pinterest has so much amazing hair eye candy to look at. I must admit that I am not daring enough to try this trend because it would require me to bleach my dark hair first. But if I already had blonde hair I would totally go for this look. I think I would probably dye my hair a light baby pink which is my favorite look now. What I love most about pastel hair is the way it makes me feel when I see it. The colors remind me of sherbet, cotton candy, ice cream, carnivals, bubbles, unicorns, fairy tales and my little pony. It just makes me feel really happy because it is so girly and child like.  Below are some of my favorites but click on my board to see many other styles.

the most amazing pony tail

loving this purply white shade. It looks so modern with a simple wave.

the shade I would go for perfect pink

reminds me of the ice cream sandwiches with multiple colors

Chalking. Must try this since it is semi permanent

1920′s style bob made even more special because it is a peachy pink!

the shading and blending of purples and blue is stunning

my little pony style pony

Hope your day is off to a brighter start

Lauren

Follow me on Instragram @corvusnoir

1. I love all vintage daisy prints
2. the executive hard at work
3. where the blog magic happens
4. my favorite burger at Hop Doddys
5. pretty paris display at the antique mall
6. animal party
7. pretty candy from Marshalls
8. morning naps are the best, right Rufus
9. austin seriously has the worst bagels
10. favorite vintage jewels
11. I really wish I bought this vintage purse
12. rufus reflecting with my vintage tray

Lauren

Hi Guys,

Today I have for you a very simple yet still fun jewelry DIY for you to try at home. Changing the clasps on your necklaces or bracelets to make them wearable. There have been so many times that I have had to pass on a necklace that I love because the closure was not secure and could not have been changed. The closures I hate the most are the ones you find on vintage 1950′s necklaces, hook closures. They just don’t seem secure to me and I am afraid I will end up losing the necklace. I do indeed buy those necklaces when I know for sure that I can remove those clasps and put on my own! The two necklaces that I am working on below are both vintage with hook closures.

Materials:

1. Two jewelry pliers
2. Two lobster clasps
4. Four Jump Rings
5. Ruler

Before: Original hook closures. i knew that I could re work these necklaces because if you look at where the closure lies, it can be easily removed and the open circle can hold a new clasp. That is always a giveaway when deciding if you should buy a piece!

Necklace One: Vintage Napier

I was hesitant to take off the closure at first because it was signed Napier but when I turned it over I saw that the necklace was signed again. With your Jewelry pliers open up the jump ring and remove both ring and hook closure on both sides of the necklace.

Open your new jump ring so that it is large enough to hold your lobster clasp and fit through the hole in the necklace. Once on, close both ends of the jump ring and your clasp will be secure. There is no way it will fall off now!

On the opposite side of the necklace attach a new jump ring and close both ends together.

The new closure is safe and secure and ready for wear!

I love how short the necklace is. Reminds me of something Cleopatra would wear.

Necklace Two: Vintage three strand gold pearl

Measure necklace for exact length. My necklace has a beaded extender on the end so you can make it shorter or longer. You need to determine here how long you want your necklace to be because when you put on the new clasp and closure it will no longer be adjustable.

The beaded extender. I decided to make my necklace 17 inches and to achieve that length I only need to remove the bead at the end.

Just like the first necklace remove your hook clasp and the jump ring it is attached to.

Open new jump ring and put through the hole in the necklace with your lobster clasp attached and close securely.

Remove the portion of the extender you don’t want to use. For me, I am only taking off the first bead but someone else might want their necklace shorter and have to remove more till they reach their desired length.

Attach your new jump ring to the opening of the last bead and you are done!

Your necklace is now secure and ready for a night out on the town.

This is one of my new favorite necklaces and it only cost 10 dollars, a great buy.

Lauren

Last week I had a great time pretend styling Megan Draper in a mixture of both vintage and modern fashions. I had even more fun working on Betty this week because I love her feminine style. Betty reminds me of a doll with her light blonde locks and big poofy tea style dresses. She always looks polished and very put together. The looks that I found for Betty are really reminiscent of the first couple seasons of Mad Men when she was married to Don and went to a lot of work functions and parties. I really enjoyed her character and was pretty disappointed when they gave her less and less screen time the last couple of seasons. I think my favorite Betty moment is when she accused Don of having an affair and spent days in her party dress wandering around the house in tears snooping through his things. have a look below at the clothing and accessories I would love to style Betty in. Click on my pinterest board for links of all the items.

favorite Betty moment

Dresses

My favorite vintage dress here is the white with over sized pink and green flowers. It is such a princess dress and perfect for Betty who is like a real life Barbie doll. I especially love the giant velvet green bow tie right underneath the breast.

Shoes and Purses

I decided to go with modern shoes and vintage purses for betty’s accessories. Since the dresses she wears have a lot of color and pattern already I wanted the accessories to be more neutral but still feminine. I chose pieces that had rhinestone, glitter, beading, and floral.

Jewels

My favorite part of dressing Betty is of course the vintage jewelry I found. I love to see Betty in a big statement necklace such as a the three strand pearl above. The strawberry necklace adds a little humor to her put together style.

Stay tuned next week for the last of the Mad Men series. Who do you think I have decided to style?

Lauren