Clothesline Season is Finally Here!

Posted by & filed under Daily Life, Frugal Living, Vintage.

Windy clotheslineSince I don’t use a clothes dryer and only air-dry my laundry, I am exceptionally jubilant when the weather becomes warm and sunny enough to dry outside. Today was such a day! Almost 70 degrees, sunny, and a gentle breeze equals optimum outdoor laundry-drying conditions. I cleaned off my nylon rope clothesline, which is sturdily hanging in there after 8 years, and gleefully hung my clothes out in the fresh air. They are swaying in the breeze and actually seem to be drying relatively quickly. That is, compared to being on indoor drying racks. Drying racks serve their purpose in wintertime, but it’s really nice to get them out of my kitchen space for awhile.

Towels on clotheslineIf you’ve never tried clothesline-drying, I urge you to at least give it a try. You not only save electricity, but you get the added esthetic benefit of having clean, fresh, sun-dried laundry. The poignant natural line-dried scent is unlike anything that commercial laundry products could ever hope to produce. You learn to accept cleanly dried laundry as a benefit, and a step away from laundry tossed around in hot dryers and coated with chemical fabric softeners.

City clotheslinePlus it is just plain wonderful to hang laundry outside in nature. It is one of those time-honored rituals that we have gotten so far away from these days. Let Mother Nature do your drying!

~Marilyn

Vintage 60s Yardley of London Dolly Face and Glimmerick Pails

Posted by & filed under Beauty, Fashion, Vintage.

Just when I think I’ve found all the Yardley of London ads in my stash of Seventeen magazines I find some more, which is always a delight! I go through my magazines from time to time looking for some particular item, and often run across ads that I’ve missed.  Of course my favorites are the 60s Yardley ads when they were British Mod and cool.

Yardley of London Dolly Face vintage 1968This Dolly Face Beauty Mask by Yardley ad is from 1968. They made facial masks in 5 silvery pastels: Shock Silver, Blimey Blue, Giddy Green, Pink-a-Dolly Pink, and Penny Pumpkin. The packaging is fabulous too. You got to chose a color – I mean, how groovy is that? Now you could look all colorful while you “loosen blackheads, get rid of oiliness, and pink your face as smooth and relaxed as though you had ten hours of fresh sleep!”. Does anyone use facial masks anymore? I know that I used to do them all the time in the 60s and 70s. I can say for certain that there is not currently a facial mask out there today that is offered in 5 colors though. Beauty was certainly a lot more fun back then.

Yardley of London Glimmerick eye shadow vintage 1969Next up is the Glimmerick Sunshine Pales from 1969. This is Yardley’s Glimmerick Water-Color Eyeshadows that came in cute little pails (pales in pails, get it? Har har). Meant to be all summery pale and shimmerful, “like washing your lids with liquid sunshine”. In colors of Sunshine ‘n Sand, a pinky beige; Sunshine ‘n Blue, a sky -blue blue; and Sunshine ‘n Green, a frothy summer seascape. Again, Yardley’s packaging and presentation is marvelous – that adorable little flowered pail with handles is just waaay too cute. Okay, now I’m getting all poignant and nostalgic for Yardley of London makeup again. But I am so glad that I got to experience it first-hand in the 60s and 70s when I was a teenager.

~Marilyn

 

Letting My Hair Be

Posted by & filed under Beauty, Daily Life, Health.

Vintage HairIt’s been exactly three months since I last colored my hair. Usually around this time I would be be frantically gathering up my coloring kit and preparing to launch myself into another hair dyeing session. But no; I am sticking with my 2014 plan to not color my hair, and it feels good!

My scalp feels a whole lot healthier. It was getting increasingly more irritated with redness and flakiness after every hair coloring session, and now I can just let my scalp go back to its natural state. Since I’m growing out my bangs, I’ve also stopped using product (hairspray, gels, pomades, leave-in conditioner) on my hair. I basically just shampoo and condition every three days or so. I’ve cut back on blow drying – I let my hair air-dry as much as possible, and then blow dry it with a brush to finish and smooth it out.

My roots are growing in kind of a burnished taupe-y color and I’m okay with that. I’ve grown more accepting of what my natural hair color is supposed to be at this stage of my life, and am even a little excited. I am finally going to sit back and see what Mother Nature has planned for my hair in my late 50s. Not doing much to my hair saves time, money, and is restoring health to my scalp and tresses.

~Marilyn

Zote Soap Laundry Flakes – Woo Hoo!

Posted by & filed under Daily Life, Fashion, Frugal Living, Health, Vintage.

Zote Soap Laundry FlakesI don’t typically shop at the big box Walmart stores, because I find them way too harrowing and crazy. But occasionally I do stop in at the Walmart ‘Neighborhood Market’ which is next door to one of the thrift stores I frequent. Basically it’s just a grocery store, but they do have some interesting (i.e. cheap) items that interest me. Today I was running some errands and popped into the ‘Neighborhood Market’ to pick up a few things. I swung down the laundry aisle just to look at their Zote soap selection, and by golly I just about swooned! They had Zote Soap LAUNDRY FLAKES!!!

You should know by now that I am an avidly devoted fan of Zote soap. I make my homemade laundry detergent with pink Zote, and love how it looks, smells and cleans. It is basically the best laundry soap on the planet, bar none. Standing before me in the laundry aisle were the pink and white Zote soap bars, but also boxes of Zote Laundry Flakes, which I had never seen before. The boxes are 17.6 oz (500g) of all natural laundry soap finely grated into easy-to-dissolve flakes. I quickly snatched a box off the shelf and couldn’t believe my good luck in finding it!

The laundry flakes have been developed for direct use, i.e. used alone in the wash, and that is how I am going to use it. I love that Zote is natural, eco-friendly, phosphate-free, and readily biodegradable. I was sad when Ivory Snow stopped making their soap flakes because I always loved using it for lingerie, knits, and vintage clothing. But now I have Zote flakes to fill (and exceed) the void. Happy day! 😀

~Marilyn

 

 

Really? Yardley of London Grandma’s Lip Licks 1972

Posted by & filed under Beauty, Fashion, Vintage.

I was rather amused (and a bit sad) when I ran across this Yardley ad for Lip Licks from 1972, as I think I finally found the thing that possibly contributed to the end of Yardley’s makeup line. Lip Licks lipstick was promoted to give you the ‘shiniest, yummiest-tasting lips he’s ever met’. This is all well and good because Yardley DID make the most fabulous lipsticks on the planet. But I wonder about this particular advertising bent – evoking Grandma in your boyfriend’s mind? Not particularly sexy – especially after all the groovy, mod, and romantic advertising campaigns Yardley promoted in the 60s – models Jean Shrimpton, Patsy Sullivan, and Olivia Hussey in particular.

Yardley of London Lip Licks ad vintage 1972It seems as though Yardley was going for a more wholesome bent, with Lip Licks tasting and smelling like the grand goodies from Grandma’s kitchen. ‘So kiss him in his favorite flavor‘. The ‘flavors’ were Grandma’s Spicy Gingerbread, Grandma’s Candied Apple, Grandma’s Fluffy Pink Marshmallow, Grandma’s Dark Sweet Cocoa, Grandma’s Snappy Cinnamon, and Grandma’s Whipped Cream Punkin Pie. The ad shows some wholesome, generic-looking models smiling over a table full of whipped cream, pumpkin pie, cookies, hot chocolate, and candied apples. Noooooo, Yardley of London, noooooo! I feel that this was your downfall; straying away from your fabulous British uniqueness.

In any event, I really miss the awesomeness that was Yardley of London makeup. I would love to see a revival of their cosmetics line, but only if they play up its fab Yardley of LONDON originality.

~Marilyn

Walking Around Looking At Clouds

Posted by & filed under Daily Life, Health.

My favorite form of exercise is just plain old walking around my neighborhood. Walking is fantastic for so many reasons – the main ones being that it’s free, and you get a healthy dose of nature and fresh air in the process. It is also more ‘organic’ for lack of a better word. No driving to a health club to exercise in a dank place with a bunch of sweaty people. Ick. The last time I was at a health club was 1985, and I haven’t missed it one bit.

Clouds and Trees -1 FinnfemmeI live on top of a hilly ridge and I’ve gradually been increasing my walking distances to explore new areas.  I had a tendency to walk the same 2 mile loop, but now that spring is in the air I’ve been a bit more adventurous. I found a new road that shows a glimpse of the Cascade mountains. I sometimes forget that I live on a hilltop because there are so many trees obscuring the view. If there were no trees here we’d all have incredible views, but I am glad there are still trees. Enough old growth forest has been cut down to make way for new development in the area, so I savor the ones that are left.

Clouds, Sun, Trees - FinnfemmeI am also a total cloud freak. Just take a look at my Instagram account – clouds, clouds, and more clouds. I delight in their fleeting beauty. So of course, I take my smart phone with me on my walks and snap away at clouds.  My neighbors think I’m nuts, but I don’t care, “there she is, taking cloud pictures again…”. If I post a cloud picture on Facebook, people are like, “what’s with all the cloud pics?”. Sigh. I guess only cloud lovers will understand.

Clouds and Tree view - FinnfemmeI will continue on, walking, cloud-gazing, and taking pics. It’s good for the soul…well, at least my soul.  🙂

~Marilyn