And then I grew up and suddenly all of that no longer mattered.  I was all about living and experiencing life to the max.  I got distracted and my focus shifted to other things.  It seemed ironic that I would meet a man whose sole desire was to create a legacy for his progeny.  I recall that at the time, I believed so differently and felt that we were on divergent paths.

Now here I am, back on the road again, seemingly too many years behind the original goal.  Is it still possible to have all that I dream of as a child?

Whilst I’m sure his intentions are all good, I think I’ve come to the resignation of “I’ll believe it when I see it” because until we actually have the house and begin renovations, I think we’re living in the land of dreams.

Don’t get me wrong – I enjoy living with my in laws with all the extra help with the kids and all, but there’s really nothing like having your own place.

They give people firsthand information on the fashion history and the clothes’ elaborate evolution. However, as with any other clothing styles, vintage clothes need to be mindfully assembled. You wouldn’t want to look like you’ve just come out of a 1920 portrait, would you? To get the most out of vintage style clothing, you have to know how to wear them in the modern times without looking out of style. Here are some tips.

1. Never wear a complete vintage ensemble, and this means vintage from head to toe. If you do, you have big chances of being mistaken for a Victorian play actor. Town down a little. One vintage piece can already bring the style and uniqueness to your ensemble. For example, wear your vintage blouse with a pair of contemporary jeans and not with its original skirt. Or dress in a vintage jacket with a nice shirt and skinny jeans. The idea here is to keep one vintage piece your focal item and pair it up with other pieces from your closet.

2. Keep your personal style. The thing with vintage is that some items are temptingly attractive and entice you to take them home without any careful thought. However, not all of them suit your personal style. Vintage clothing allows you to be a little experimental, but never go overboard. It’s okay to try new things, but make sure that whatever you put on expresses your individuality and makes you look good. For instance, don’t buy a skirt just because it’s leopard. Assess if it looks pretty on you, complements your body shape, and goes with the current trend. Make sure as well that you are comfortable in it. What good is it to wear a flattering wardrobe if you can hardly breathe?

3. Try to accessorize. Remember that you don’t necessarily have to go vintage all the way. In some instances, you can do well with vintage accessories. If, for example, you are wearing an evening dress, try using vintage earrings, bracelet, or necklace. Vintage jewelry perfectly transforms your getup from being plain to extravagant as much as other vintage accessories like pins, brooches, and bags do. You should, however, try to limit your accessories to one to two pieces at a time, so you can keep the harmony in your ensemble.

4. Alter the vintage piece if you deem it necessary. Others don’t feel like altering their vintage thinking that doing so loses its historical sense. But there’s nothing wrong with doing some changes in a vintage piece, especially if you want to fit into it and to make it more updated.

5. Be confident. You sure are wearing old stuff, but vintage style clothing has a way of making things sophisticated. It should, therefore, translate in your attitude. Whatever reason you have for buying a vintage piece, never walk down the street feeling inferior and dowdy. There are women who own vintage clothes and wear them like they are worth a million. The secret? It all lies in their attitude. They feel good with vintage—its style and classic element—and it manifests in their looks.

Definitely, a significant part of using and wearing vintage clothing is people’s ability to recognize modern use for such old items. Most teenagers of today find delight in owning and wearing vintage clothing. Likewise, people in their 20s and 30s often refer to vintage clothing as an extraordinary and classy source of genuine, original, and highly unique clothing style.

There is basic information you should learn and always remember about vintage clothing. First, it is including garments and accessories from the classic Victorian era or much earlier. It should encompass anything identified in the Victorian period down to the baby boomers’ years of 1960s. Purists are always arguing on this, and perhaps people should realize that clothing identified as from the 1970s to 1980s should instead be described as contemporary clothing, instead of vintage clothing. Technically, clothes made and designed after the 1960s should rightfully be classified or categorized as ‘retro.’

What about the pricing scheme and value of vintage clothing? Like in all antiques, the actual value of most vintage clothing should be based primarily upon the quality, condition, market demand, and of course availability. High-quality, in-demand, and limitedly available vintage clothing should logically be worth a fortune. If you are still in doubt about modern pricing, you should begin doing your homework.

The best probable way to effectively ascertain vintage clothing value is to do a good research, as mentioned. Online shopping sites like eBay could facilitate a good market research. You should take time, effort, and patience in educating yourself about vintage clothing through reading informative articles and then investing in educational vintage clothing books.

Vintage clothing should be treated as an investment and as a fashion statement at the same time. Vintage clothing and accessories from the 1950s down to 1960s are logically easier and more convenient to locate. They should also be more affordable. However, designer pieces could be highly expensive as they could become genuine and really desirable collectors’ items.

Take note that another characteristic of vintage clothing is that the more they age, the greater their value becomes. Thus, collectible items like Hawaiian print shirts, expensive designer gowns, and 1950s bowling shirts could be more valuable in time. You could be surprised at how their value would grow further through the years. Thus, some people are just adept and passionate about collecting such items as novelties. In time, they could prove to be significant collectors’ investments.

Take care of vintage clothing. Understand well the current condition of the items. Air dry or drip dry vintage clothing to avoid fading of color and shrinkage. It is not advisable to use dryer. Some items should be dry cleaned instead of washed. Take note of the kind of fabrics present and handle such clothing with much more care.

Remember that because of old age, vintage clothing might already not be able to effectively withstand stretching, washing, and conventional drying.

There is no denying that before the big comeback vintage clothing made, people were ready to discard dad’s old pair of jeans, mom’s old boots and other stuff that used to be the all the rave in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and the 80’s. It was either the trash can or the big boxes that we use to gather clothes at the back of the church for the hurricane victims. That’s right, it was like that before. People found no use for these clothes that are still in good condition just because they were out of date or yesterday’s news. Some people did have the good sense of having a garage sale to make some money out of these clothes that were part of the “Boys don’t cry” era. While some others just held on to it as memorabilia but never to be worn again in public.

But because of the big revival in the fashion industry, vintage clothing was given second life and another chance to make people feel, look and dress good. Some kids started looking for vintage tees and jeans in the attic so they could be more “in” with their circle. These are kids are lucky because their parents couldn’t let go of the past but for some people who do not share their luck there are still places where you can dig up old treasures of the times that passed. Here are a few good places to look for vintage clothing.

Antique stores-Aside from really old furniture and fixtures, antique stores are one of the good places to hunt for vintage clothing. There are a good number of antique stores that carry clothes along with furniture in them, they may have mostly shoes and bags and only a handful of clothing. However, there is nothing bad in trying. Who knows what you might find.

Second hand stores-These places are like vintage heaven. These stores carry a huge selection of clothing ranging from vintage to the modern ones. You may need a great deal of patience though as it takes a little while to find the good items.

Garage sales-It’s amazing how much clutter and junk people can gather in their lifetime but it is also a good place to hunt for vintage clothes.

Surplus stores-Usually these stores have multiple items that are the same. Nonetheless, try your best at looking for the ones that are unique and have good quality.

Specialty shops-There is a number of stores and shops that specialize in vintage clothing nowadays. It wouldn’t be too hard to find what you are looking for here. Remember, vintage clothing is all about where to find and how to find it.

A web browser’s main job is to find and display web pages. From there, it makes possible the “communication” between your computer and the web server where a site is located.

Cyber security risks
But, your browser is also – and this is the dangerous part – the gateway of the cyber world into your computer. And, not all of the things from the Internet going inside your computer are good. Some are downright risky.

Today’s browser is sophisticated enough, through the years of innovation, to handle the multiple applications needed to surf the Internet. Many of these try to boost up and heighten the surfing experience by enabling your browser’s functionalities.

But sometimes, these functionalities are not needed and they can leave your computer vulnerable. It is therefore safe to disable them until they are needed.

In a perfect world, one should set one’s browser security to the highest level possible. But these settings may restrict the functionality of other features and prevents some web pages to load properly. The best compromise solution would be to set your browser to the highest security level (to prevent attacks) but at the same time enabling some features to work when you need them.

Today’s many browsers are mostly graphical browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, AOL, Opera, Safari for the Macintosh, and Lynx for the visually-impaired users.) These are capable of playing video and audio clips, aside from displaying texts and graphics. Most have user-friendly tabs and options in choosing your preferred security level setting.

It is important to know and be familiar with your browser and how it is different from the others.  It will come in handy when you evaluate and determine the features and setting most appropriate for your use.

For instance, to explore the basic security options in Windows’ Internet Explorer, you click Tools on the menu bar, select Internet Options, choose the Security tab, and click the Custom level. In Firefox, you click Tools first, select Options, and then click Content Privacy and Security tabs. The others have their own path systems.

Choosing your browser

Security should be paramount in choosing your browser. But, of course, given one’s particular needs in surfing and using the Internet, other considerations are just as important. Sometimes, a browser comes packaged with the operating system. It should not limit, however, your choice.

Compatibility – does your browser work with the OS (operating system) of your computer?

Ease – are you comfortable and familiar with the options, menus, system of your browser?

Function –will it still work if other plug-ins or other devices are installed?

Appeal – do you like how your browser looks and works?

Functionalities – Your browser should be able to give you the option of putting web sites into different segments, or zones, and define different security restrictions for each. The best protection should be to set the security to the highest level, or maintain it at a medium level.

If you know of some sites which can be classified as trusted, you can set your browser setting accordingly. You may require them to implement SSL or Secure Sockets Layer so you can verify if they are what they claim to be.  Note, however, that it is good to avoid lowering your security levels with them. If they are attacked, you might be included.

You may restrict particular sites you are not sure of. Prevention is always the best cure for any disease, real-life or online.

Be careful about your Java and ActiveX controls. These scripts, used to achieve certain appearances or functionality, can be used in attacking your computer. This is also true about Plug-ins, those additional software that enhances the function of some programs. Make sure that the sites that installing them are trustworthy.

For safety, it is advisable to disable Cookies and enable them only if the site you trust requires them.

Cyber Security starts first in your browser. It is best that you start the safeguarding process from there, your computer’s door to the wide, wild world of cyber space.

Right now, hubby and I could do with something like that.  As much as we enjoy living with my ILs, I still feel that as a family, we really need our own place.  I always thought that by this stage I would be buying properties for investment.  Never did I think I wouldn’t even own the house that I live in.  Whatever happened to my grand plans?  Nothing is as I had imagined it would be – then again, I’m not exactly complaining either because I am very happy with the way life is.  It’s different, but still good.

I’m sure the companies of these products must have found this impacting their sales quite a bit.  Nevertheless, they have managed to get a loophole around the problem.  Now you can get weight loss drugs like adipex no prescription which does not require individuals to get a physical examination and a doctor’s approval for using the drug.   I wonder about the wisdom of such things but I suppose as long as we aren’t reading of accidental deaths from the consumption of phentermine weight loss drugs in the papers, it must be okay.

Now that hubby and I have decided to stop the baby making and concentrate on raising the two that we have now, it is only a matter of time before I’m no longer required to be a full time Mum and I’ll finally have time to myself while the children are at school.  Although it might be a tad premature to be thinking this way, I did wonder what I would do with myself when that time comes.  Would I go back into the work force?  What would I even be qualified to do after being so many years out of it?

Although I still wasn’t sure exactly what I would do, it had occurred to me that I had to do something.  I didn’t want to end up like the older generation these days who have very little to do.  I keep telling myself that since I grew up with technology, I’ll still have ways to entertain myself.  Who knows, I could be the oldest grandmother blogger?  Whatever it is, I have decided that it has to be related to writing in some way.

Anyway, we have since figured that the soonest we can have one is around about the time Gareth is six months old.  He’ll still be easy to travel with because we can keep him completely on breast milk and won’t have to worry about solids for him.

Disney vacations was one of the holiday ideas we were thinking of planning.  Gavin is eager to see Mickey and Minnie and I know my FIL is also eager to take him.  The closest Disney World we have to us is the one in Hong Kong.  It won’t be as grand, but it will do for a start.  Then when both of the boys are older, we can take them to the one in Florida.