Vintage Notions Book Review...giveaway on Thursday!

Vintage Notions, by Amy Barickman...I was so blessed to receive a copy of this lovely book to review...so excited to share a bit of her book with you, my readers!

Truly a delight for lovers of all things vintage, this book is much, much more than your typical craft project book (although it does contain sewing patterns and projects!). Basically, in a nutshell, it's a compilation of the vintage fashion and magazine articles from the early 1900's. It is chock full of recipes, household tips, inspirational quotes and poems, advice for friendship and relationships...and it is simply filled with lovely illustrations and vintage fashions. Delightful!

Vintage Notions is a celebration of the beauty and joy to be found in the womanly arts of homemaking, decorating, fashion sewing, and cooking...this would be an excellent book to share with a special friend...or to treat yourself with if you are in need of some household inspiration and encouragement!

Oh, did I mention that this is a large book...240 pages...there is definitely enough inspiration here to last a year at least!

I have always loved old things...I have many memories of antique shopping trips with my grandmother. She taught me to appreciate the beauty of the past and I loved hearing her stories and paging through her albums of black and white photos, asking "who's this" again and again.

This book brought back a lot of those memories...memories of my grandma, (she would love this book!) and memories of the ideals and romantic notions of my teenage years. Ideals that have sadly gotten shoved to the back of my mind as I've grown up and taken on new responsibilities...the busyness of life has a way of making one forget about the important things, doesn't it?

I think I'd forgotten the dignity, joy and meaning that can and should be derived from creative home arts...making good food for my family, playing outside with my kids, indulging in sewing something for myself, reaching out in friendship to the people God has placed in my life...all of these things are important and the enjoyment of them shouldn't be neglected in the craziness of life.

I think this vintage quote from the book sums up what I'm trying to say...

(pg. 96)

"I could not help thinking what the day means to me. It is always like a new piece of cloth to use in the best way that I know. Material means so much to me--its texture, color, width, and purpose--that even if it is only a kitchen curtain or a cloth for dish toweling, it has its use and should be cut and made the best way I know so that it may give the greatest satisfaction and comfort.

And our lives are as a day. We must make them fruitful. How? By total unselfishness. Selfish people often have comforts that the unselfish do not have, but they never possess the same quantity of rightness and happiness....

A woman, according to her love and energy, has a great responsibility

in making her home an abode of peace, a place of protection from the winds of the world,

a castle for her love, and a shrine to womanliness."

The book contains 12 different "magic patterns", original projects from the early 1900's. Patterns include several different apron styles, a cape, purses, several different styles of loungewear and nightwear and more.

I love the vintage fashion illustrations scattered throughout the book! The book is divided into monthly sections and each section contains seasonally appropriate fashion, beauty tips, recipes and more.

Amy Barickman, the author of Vintage Notions is also the owner and founder of Indigo Junction Patterns...go check them out...Thursday we will be hosting a review of one of her purse patterns...and a giveaway! See you then!

Jessica