vintage | kimberly ah

Jul 09 2018

adventures, celebrations, Forest Park, gardening, holidays, snail mail, summer manifesto, Theme Parties, what's for dinner

Our Fourth

July 4th seems like weeks ago. I remember when I was a kid, it felt like July 4th was the end of summer…like it had this power to make the rest of summertime rush by. As an adult, I still kind of believe this, especially since school supplies are already out at Target. (Really…it’s ridiculous.) But really, there’s so much summer left! It was soooo hot and humid on the 4th. It rained a teeny bit, but not enough to really impact the garden, or the heat. I gave our plot a good soak during the community garden BBQ. Our tomato jungle is coming along nicely…no tomatoes yet…but our edamame is growing like crazy and the rabbits haven’t eaten it yet! Naoto and I had a mini Hasegawa Happy Hour and made Cherry Manhattans (recipe from Leopold Bros.) Cherry Manhattans have become our lazy summer drink. Despite what this picture shows, we drank them inside because it was too sweaty to be outside. We had Chicago-style hot dogs, corn on the cob, and baked beans for supper. It was the epitome of America. We ended up watching fireworks from the Circle Bridge over the Eisenhower (Interstate 290 for you non-Chicagoans.) I love fireworks, but I hate crowds, so it was kind of the perfect spot. It was still so hot, but there was a decent breeze (from the traffic?) and the were no mosquitos, plus it was only a few blocks from home. (What can I say? I’m a lazy reveler!)

Oh! And here are those vintage patriotic stamps in action!

I’d love to hear about your Fourth/last Wednesday!

Tagged adventures, celebrations, cocktails, food, forest park, gardening, holidays, mail art, snail mail, summer, vintage

Jul 05 2018

3 Comments

adventures, celebrations, cocktails, Theme Parties, vintage

Thank You for Being a Friend

A couple weeks ago I threw a party that has been on my theme party list for a looooong time -actually since before the Mrs. Roper party- The Golden Girls Gala! I love The Golden Girls. It’s my favorite comfort TV and I’ve seen most of the episodes at least ten times each. I love the girls’ style, especially their pajamas. (It makes me want to up my pajama game.) I love Dorothy’s sarcasm, Blanche’s confidence, Rose’s innocence, and Sophia’s attitude. This is my favorite Golden Girls moment:

It’s hard to say what my favorite episode is…maybe “Yes, We Have No Havanas” (Season 4, Episode 1) where Blanche and Sophia fight over the same man? Or “A Little Romance” (Season 1, Episode 13) where Rose is dating a little person and the other girls handle meeting him with…awkwardness. What’s your favorite episode?
I found these great Golden Girls paper dolls and used them to decorate the food table. I ordered these Golden Girls faces from Paper Party Parade on Etsy. I used them to make little cheese picks. And I used the leftover circles to make a garland with some Golden Girls postcards from my collection. I’ve used the gold glitter rosettes for a thousand parties and I think they’ve met their end. They have served us well…We mostly hung out in the kitchen where Naoto made pizzas (reminiscent of Sophia and Max’s pizza shop in “Sophia’s Wedding” from Season 4, Episode 7.) We ate other 1980s snacks like cheese balls, Crunch-n-Munch, and Pop Tarts. And we ate guava cheesecake because of course…we had to eat cheesecake.We eventually made it out to the lanai to enjoy dessert and cocktails. I encouraged everyone to dress “in costume” and it was a fabulous variety of Golden Girls interpretations. I wore a peignoir set. (My mom was shocked that I was going to wear it in front of guests, but it covered as much as a summer dress would, so I figured it was fine.) My peignoir set was borrowed from my mom (she, too, has fabulous pajamas) and it’s not as colorful and luxurious as Blanche’s, but it worked for the party. Karen wore a very Dorothy outfit, long and loose. (She also borrowed from her mom’s closet!) Robyn wore the most fantastic 1980s working girl outfit, bright colors, bold necklace, neon sunglasses, clip-on earrings!! (You can see her at the top picture.) Donovan and Kathy both wore wonderful kaftans that were casually fabulous. And Jackie found a hilarious t-shirt of The Girls and the moon. I made a Golden Girl punch based off a recipe I modified from Serious Eats. I’ll share it soon. It was a hit, though we ran out of some key ingredients and I had to save us with Aviations later in the night! Of course at the end of every party I always think about the thousands of ways I could have decorated better or hosted better, but I think everyone had a good time…and really, that’s all you need with friends.

Tagged celebrations, cocktails, crafts, decorating, forest park, Golden Girls, summer, vintage

Jul 04 2018

3 Comments

celebrations, GalaxieSafari, holidays, Office Supplies, snail mail, summer manifesto, vintage

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans! (To everyone else, happy Wednesday!)

I’m spending today catching up on some mail (and topping it off with the patriotic postage above!) and going to a BBQ at the community garden. Naoto is making an all-American supper tonight (hot dogs, corn on the cob and baked beans) before we go see fireworks. (Or it might rain, so maybe no BBQ or fireworks…time will tell.)

I’ll be back tomorrow with a post about last month’s Golden Girls Gala.

P.S. Naoto was not as excited as I was that this postage ensemble accidentally added up to fifty cents…

Tagged celebrations, crafts, holidays, mail art, office supplies, snail mail, vintage

Jun 26 2018

1 Comment

celebrations, cocktails, Kyoto, thrifted, vintage

12th Anniversary Gifts

Every year, Naoto and I exchange gifts based on our anniversary year. (I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before…) We use this list as our guide, just to keep it consistent. Some years, we are spot on, and other years we leave things open to interpretation. I follow the modern gift guide for Naoto and he follows the traditional for me. The modern gifts for the twelfth anniversary are silk or linen. So I bought Naoto a linen shirt and a chef’s hat. I wrapped his gift in some paper from a shop in Kyoto. (It’s their shop paper that they wrapped our purchases in. It’s been in my paper hoard since…2015?) There was a Kyoto link in our gift-giving this year, as you will see. I think this proves that we are both itching to go back to Japan again. Sadly, the chef’s hat was too small…even for me! But the shirt fit nicely and there’s a new, larger hat on its way. My gift was supposed to be pearls, but Naoto found this vintage “fireworks” brooch and I love it. Pearls are lovely, but really, I have some pearl earrings (from our wedding) and a necklace (from Naoto’s Hawaiian host mom) and I think that’s plenty of the most fragile “gems” on earth, so this was a good substitution. And he gave me gin from a distillery in Kyoto! We’re finally opening it tonight so I’ll have a full report soon. Stay tuned.

Tagged celebrations, cocktails, I *heart* Japan, Japan, thrifting, vintage

Jun 21 2018

4 Comments

cocktails, gardening, homemaking, Office Supplies, snail mail, summer manifesto, Wine

Cocktail: The Garden Party

This spring has been such a mix of weather. We’ve had everything from melt-your-make-up-off hot and humid to almost fall-like, crisp and cool. Today for Summer Solstice, it’s chilly with a deluge. Last week, we had a couple perfect nights and I was able to sit outside and write letters while the sun was setting. It was a dream evening alone.

Earlier in the day, we harvested our first lavender of the summer, so I decided to celebrate by making up a cocktail. I used some of my dried lavender from last summer to make a lavender simple syrup and mixed it with lemon, Cocchi Americano, and prosecco to make a refreshing, not-too-boozy drink. Cocchi Americano is a little bit bitter, thanks to the quinine, so the cocktail isn’t super sweet. It’s also low in alcohol, so this is the perfect drink for the afternoon (or if you need to keep your head about you while you write thank you notes!)

Lavender Simple Syrup

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

2 Tablespoons dried lavender

In a pan on the stove, dissolve the sugar in the water. Remove from heat and add dried lavender. Steep for 30 minutes and strain into a container. Refrigerate until chilled.

The Garden Party

2 oz Cocchi Americano Bianco (the white version)

1 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 oz lavender syrup

prosecco, to taste

Add the Cocchi, lemon juice, and simple syrup into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until fully chilled. Strain into a coupe and top off with a bit of prosecco (or another sparkling wine.) Top with a sprig of fresh lavender. Enjoy on your lanai while writing letters, or at an actual garden party with friends.

Tagged cocktails, food, garden, gardening, homemaking, mail art, snail mail, vintage

May 24 2018

2 Comments

crafty adventures, homemaking, Office Supplies, thrifted, vintage

A Peek Inside My Desk: Vintage Paper Drawer

A few years ago, I organized my vintage paper by color. It was an effort to get all of the bits and pieces out of their various packages that were strewn about my apartment. And it was a failed effort to get me to use up some of my stash. So far, I haven’t really used much.

The drawer came with dividers, so I figured it would be a good place to color code my vintage papers. Organizing things in rainbow order (or, ROY G BIVing, as I like to call it) is incredibly pleasing to me. I’m also a tiny box hoarder, so those come in handy to corral the little bits of loose things like tiny decals and labels and tickets. Who needs the Container Store when there are so many leftover little paper boxes?Pink, orange and purple are the least full sections. But a lot of my “orange” stuff is in a Halloween bin. I try to keep the holiday stuff separate and tuck out-of-season stuff away, but sometimes it ends up in here (if I order it or find it out of season.) Most of the stuff I’ve had for a long time…too long. I’ve found a lot at thrift stores and flea markets and I’ve gotten a ton from Saturday Morning Vintage and @feedthebirdies on Instagram. I’d say the airmail/red, white, and blue section is my favorite. Purple is my least favorite color but I have to admit, I’m pretty enamored with a lot of my vintage purple bits…especially those Gin Fizz labels! The “neutral section” looks a little drab compared to everything else, but some of the old black and white stuff is great and who doesn’t love an old yellowed book page?

So, I’m working on keeping a notebook with pictures and a bit of journaling and I’ve found that it’s helping me use up some of my stuff. It’s a paper addict’s work in progress.

How do you organize your paper stuff?

Tagged crafts, home, mail art, office supplies, thrifting, vintage

May 22 2018

Cocktail Perfected: Boulevardier

Naoto and I had our first balcony Hasegawa Happy Hour last weekend. It was freezing. After a week of warm temperatures, the mercury plummeted on Saturday night, leaving me to shiver through our cocktail.

I love a good negroni, but since it was getting so chilly, I decided a warmer version of the drink would do the trick, so I made Boulevardiers. Basically, the gin is swapped out for whiskey. It’s warmer and a bit sweeter than a negroni. We drank them in two of my new favorite cocktail glasses, thanks to my parents’ thrifting luck and genius.

Boulevardier

1 1/2 oz bourbon

3/4 oz sweet vermouth

3/4 oz Campari

Pour into a mixing glass and stir with ice until completely chilled. In my experience, that means stir for way longer than you think you should be stirring, 25-30 seconds. Strain into a pretty cocktail glass and garnish with an orange peel, if desired. Enjoy on your balcony on a chilly night, and come inside when you get too cold.

Tagged cocktails, home, thrifting, vintage

Apr 17 2018

Mail Reads: The Post Office Book, Mail and How It Moves

The Post Office Book: Mail and How It Moves was a gift from my pen pals in Wisconsin, Angela and Penny! It is a fun little paperback they found at a bookstore and sent to me last year. It’s super cute drawings really get into the nitty gritty of how mail gets from one mailbox to another. It was written in the 80s, but I think the illustrations are timeless, though things are a little more high tech now. It starts with a little history of early “mail.” And then they jump into “modern mail.” I like how it shows different types of mailboxes: mail slots, apartment mailboxes, rural mailboxes, and PO boxes. It’s fun to see how automated things were in the eighties compared to the older books from the fifties and sixties. And I think things are even more automated now. Based on my post office visit a few years ago, my understanding is that humans are only sorting things at the very end of the mail journey as letter carriers are sorting for their own routes.

Have you seen any other good kids books about the post office?

Tagged books, mail art, office supplies, snail mail, vintage

Apr 04 2018

1 Comment

celebrations, crafty adventures, Office Supplies, snail mail, thrifted, vintage, Write On

Letters & Libations Party Decorations

Naoto was a little worried about party decorations so I told him I’d handle it. I love making garlands and I already had a bunch of supplies leftover from last year’s Write On Party.

I just strung a bunch of airmail envelopes from the ceiling and then made a garland with First Day Covers and old postcards from my vintage paper drawer. And for the “centerpiece” I made a giant paper airplane based on this Oh Happy Day tutorial. I just used eco white roll wrap from Paper Source and drew lines with a pink and blue Sharpie. Then I used this tutorial to fold the plane. I haven’t folded a paper airplane since grade school so I needed a little refresher course.

Presley was impressed.

Naoto made a kraft paper tablecloth for me with “post office” written in several languages and he even drew the Japan Post mascot for me! We scattered some airmail envelopes on the table with the stationery and called it done. Simple but on-theme. Presley enjoyed pushing the mail truck off the table. She doesn’t like being left out of the letter writing fun.

Simple, and at the end of the day, everything is reusable (especially for National Card & Letter Writing Month happening now!) and recyclable!

Tagged adventures, celebrations, crafts, decorating, diy, mail art, office supplies, snail mail, vintage

Apr 01 2018

1 Comment

celebrations, holidays, snail mail, thrifted, Write On

Happy Easter, Happy Spring

Happy Easter (if you celebrate) and Happy April! It’s still quite cold here in Chicago, which is the norm for early spring. We’re still working out our Easter menu, but I have my spring cocktail napkins all ready to go.