“Vintage is a girl's best friend.”
I love all things vintage. I welcome you to my page and hope you will share in my experiences.
A feminine touch
The Sweet Vintage Lady Store has a lovely selection of shabby chic fashion. Today I want to share with you a sample of romantic and feminine vintage clothing that we have available at the shop.
Here is a delicate sheer silver gray dress made by Jackie Taub in the 1980′s. Perfect for going to a wedding or even for a vintage bridesmaid look.
Shabby chic sheer silver grey dress
We also have a lovely ruffle blouse in pastel pink with a floral design. This is a beautiful piece for the office or a dressy evening.
Pastel pink ruffle blouse
Floral prints are in this Summer and we have an adorable maxi dress made by Bob Simmons Dallas.
Floral dress
This beautiful victorian-style blouse will give you the shabby chic feel that you are looking for…
1970's sheer cream lace blouse
We also bring you a 1990′s pastel pink long maxi dress. Simple, yet so pretty.
Pastel pink vintage grunge dress
To shop for these and more shabby chic vintage fashion, please stop by our online store located at www.etsy.com/shop/sweetvintagelady or click on the links on the right side of my blog. Stay sweet!
Summer beach fashion vintage style
Summer beach fashion vintage style is in at the Sweet Vintage Lady Store on Etsy. We have some unique beach/pool tops that will go perfect with your bathing suit. Take a look:
Vintage aqua blue terry cloth cover topmade by DeWeese.
Vintage aqua blue top
1960′s bathing suit cover up topmade by Rose Marie Reid.
Retro bathing suit cover up
Are you ready for the beach season? Visit us at www.etsy.com/shop/Sweetvintangelady to shop for summer fashion.
Beach season is here!
1950′s Summer Dresses Video Blog
Hello everyone!
I hope you are having a wonderful week. Today I would like to share with you my first YouTube video. Please bear with me as I make an attempt to talk in front of the camera. Your comments are always welcome. I’m nervous…
xoxo,
Sweet Vintage Lady
Hawaiian style
Hawaiian style is so relax! Lately I have been reminiscing about our trip to Hawaii. This was back in 2007 in our pre-baby era. We were lucky enough to find a super cheap airfare to Maui so we grabbed the opportunity to have a second honeymoon. What a beautiful place! After a way too long airplane ride from Florida in the “chicken bus” where you were seating almost on top of each other (thank God this airline is no longer in business), we made it to a little piece of heaven right on this earth.
Maui beach
The road to Hana
Surfing in Maui
Haleakala National Park - volcano
The house we rented in Haiku
Me at the Old Lahaina Luau
I hope we can go back in the near future and bring Baby J with us to enjoy the beauty of Hawaii. In the meantime, I have been able to find several Hawaiian-style dresses that are available now at our Sweet Vintage Lady Store. Here is a sneak peek:
Hawaiian style caftan
Vintage green floral house dress
Vintage Hawaiian maxi dress by Midred's of Hawaii for Andrade
We also have a vintage Monkey Pod wood tray handcrafted by Leilani:
Vintage Monkey Pod wood tray
Visit us at www.etsy.com/shop/Sweetvintangelady to shop for these and more cool and unique vintage fashion.
My love affair
It is five AM on a Monday morning. The rooster sings. I open my eyes just a tiny bit to check. [Sigh] There is time left. I can sleep some more. After all the sunshine has not entered my tiny bedroom yet.
I smell it. Oh oh! It is going through my nose. I can’t resist now. I put a fight. Turn the other way… but I’m weak. It is stronger than me. I must have it pronto! I can hear the AM radio station on the background the news in Spanish. Politics again. The bread and butter of every day in this place.
A sweet voice wakes me up officially. It’s time. It is waiting for you. You have to get ready to go to school. Ah! Sweet memories from my childhood. They remind me of my obsession with it: coffee with milk. I prefer to call it “café con leche”. You can refer to it as café au lait if you are from New Orleans or café latte if you get it at Starbucks or you happen to be in Italy.
I am not sure when it all started. My sweet love affair with coffee. Who can I blame for this addiction? My dear mother. Yes, she’s been giving me coffee since I was a little child. I think she began by putting it in my baby bottle. Crazy huh? Well, the truth is that she was still giving me the bottle long after I started walking. I guess I was three but shhh don’t tell anyone. It was her own way of overprotecting me… to compensate for not breastfeeding her daughter. Whatever the reason was, it was a normal thing I guess. Growing up my mother never let me leave home for school without having my coffee with milk and she was proud of it. She felt it was the right thing to do as a Cuban mother. Coffee… if the Cuba pre-Castro had a food pyramid, coffee would probably had been right there at the bottom base with a minimum requirement of 6 to 10 servings per day for the population to stay healthy.
Cuban coffee is the best. Long before Starbucks came into the picture, Cubans have been brewing that wonderful, sweet and robust coffee every single day. It is the right way to start a morning. Coffee is a must in the Hispanic home. It is necessary to keep lots of it so you don’t ever have to hurry to the store because you ran out. Growing up I remember that when there were hurricane warnings, my mother ensured that she had a huge supply of rice and coffee, of course. Those were always the first two things that stores ran out of. Not batteries, not water, not canned food but rice and the dark gold: COFFEE. I never understood why my mother insisted on having at least 10 bags of espresso stored in the pantry. I recently decided to ask her once and for all and finally I learned the truth: When Fidel Castro established communism, Cubans were only allowed to buy a few ounces of coffee per week. You might have heard how the government assigned a list to each family with the amounts that they were allowed to buy at the store. Even though Cuba produced some of the best coffee in the world, its own people could not enjoy it whenever they wanted it. The national treasure was exported first and the country kept the leftovers. That did not stop Cubans though; they brewed that coffee even if it meant for them to reuse it a couple of times. Can you imagine? My mother who now lives in Puerto Rico is still afraid to this day that she will not have enough coffee to brew 5 times a day.
Coffee is my “comfort drink”. It reminds me of good times. A cup of good espresso always makes everything better for me. This magical drink brings me closer to my roots and when I have some, it is almost as if my mom was right next to me even though she is thousands of miles away. I could never dream of letting a day go by without having my precious hot brew.
I sometimes joke that I need an I.V. of coffee so I can revive and go on. Give it to me thru the vein please! Just make sure it is sweet enough the way I like it. No, no, no, don’t give me any artificial sweeteners. I don’t want any of that. Give me the real thing please. If I’m going to have it, I’m gonna go all the way ladies and gentlemen with good old sugar. I enjoy a strong but smooth coffee. It has to be burning hot. I need to drink it fresh and hot. My coffee brings a death person back to life.
As I was writing this blog post reflecting on how much I truly love coffee, I asked myself what would happen if I tried to give it up. Well, eleven days ago I began depriving myself of my sweet friend. Yes, I am still alive and you may say that I don’t need it to wake up but my mornings have not been the same since I let it go. The need for it is inside my mind and most importantly, inside my heart. They say it takes 21 days to break a habit and I am looking forward to meeting that goal but I will always mourn the loss of my comforting buddy: coffee.
My sweet Cuban coffee
Pussy bow fashion
Pussy bow blouses are one of the hottest trends this year. They are such a conservative piece that can become a total fashion statement when paired with the right skirt, shorts or skinny jeans. Think about is as your grandma meets the new millennium type of thing. Here at the Sweet Vintage Lady Shop on Etsy we have a variety of unique pussy bow vintage blouses from the 1970′s and the 1980′s. We also have a gorgeous 80′s does 50′s style dress that has the pussy bow look. Visit our store at etsy.com/shop/sweetvintagelady to shop for these and more trendy vintage fashion.
Pastel blue pussy bow blouse
Abstract print pussy bow blouse
Floral print short sleeves pussy bow blouse
Abstract print blouse
Plus size pussy bow blouse
Evan Picone vintage secretary blouse
80's does 50's pussy bow dress
Learning to drive
DON’T YOU KNOW HOW TO DRIVE? Have you ever been yelled at on the road? I was the other day. I was very offended because after all, I’ve been driving for 22 years.
I still remember when I turned 16… because my birthday is in November everyone else in my class at school already had their permits and had been driving. I did not want to be the last “child”. I wanted to be old and important and a driver’s permit was my passport to the new world – the world of INDEPENDENT GLADYS.
On my birthday I went really early – 6am I got in line to get my learner’s permit. My mom agreed to pay for 6-1 hour lessons so I could learn to drive. You see, in Puerto Rico high schools don’t offer driving lessons so you need to get your own. There were 2 families in town who managed driving schools. Of course I had to pick the cheapest one, the one with the Toyota that had the frog eyes, yes – yes those who OPEN & CLOSE the lights. The instructor had no personality and to tell you the truth, was a little bit scary. I don’t really remember seeing her outside the car – ever. She was huge and didn’t fit too well in her seat. She definitely wanted to make money because back in the days when gas was inexpensive, she refused to run the AC in that car.
Let me tell you, it gets really hot in the island… about a 105 degrees. It is NASTY! Who can concentrate in that heat? How can you stay sane and don’t hit anyone on the road? It was a challenge to learn to drive in that lovely environment but I did it. During my last lesson, the lady was getting nervous. She kept saying “Ay Dios mío! (Oh my God) You are not ready to do this. My reputation will go down the drain.” She finally agreed to let me take the test but gave me some recommendations – “Pray a lot and drink tea to calm your nerves”. Was she helpful or what? She was scaring me.
My friends had already warned me about the 2 examiners in charge of testing. One of them was supposed to have a glass eye and the other one really liked young girls. They said that the guy with the glass eye was tough and he would make me fail – guaranteed. If I had the other guy all I needed to do was wear my mini 80′s skirt and I would pass.
I did pray A LOT that night and chose my best outfit the next morning to attend my driving test. I even wore some red lipstick! All I needed was some reassurance from my instructor that I could do it but she didn’t say a word. Everyone at school knew I was going for my test that day so I could not imagine the embarrassment if I had to return to class having failed. I would rather die or move to another town than to face my judgmental friends.
I went for my test and had to do the parallel parking – did not hit the cones. Yes! Then I changed lanes without using the car mirrors – good job so far. Keep in mind this was all in a controlled special testing area for dummies. For my final challenge we went outside of the “fake” area and I had to drive on the real road. The road looked intimidating and I almost fainted. I needed to do a perfect U turn for him. Done! Back to the testing area and I was able to return that car in one piece. Even though it seemed like I did good I still needed to get my results. I passed with a glorious 78%. What an accomplishment! This was just the beginning of my battle…the battle to reveal INDEPENDENT GLADYS. Now if only my mom would let me drive her car life would be good. Eventually she did but that’s another story.
This mini car is just adorable!
Can I drive a groovy car?
