lucy violet vintage

Still ripping and sticking my way through my magazine stash (it fills in time when I'm waiting for tradies who never turn up when they say promise they will!)

Whilst flicking through an old issue of Dwell (great mag if you like Modernist design, but far too many ads) this advertisement caught my eye

and it reminded me that I have my very own original copy of that Better Homes and Garden Book. I found it in an oppy a couple of months ago (two dollars, shrieks of joy!) and it's full of the most gorgeous 50's gardens and retro images.

" a year round guide to practical home gardening"

1954 edition

Back in the 50's men smoked pipes while they were mowing the lawn, they wore crisp white shirts and rolled their sleeves up nattily. Their perfectly coiffed wives wore pretty dresses and high-heels while they attended to their pot plants on the terrace (not a tracky-dack or boardy in sight!)

Or so it seems...
We all know that life in the 50's (or any era for that matter) wasn't quite as idyllic as vintage books like this would have us believe, but it's nice to pretend sometimes, and I also find it interesting to see, that the saying "everything old is a new again" * not only applies to fashion, interiors and architecture but also to gardens, too.

mmmmm, nice chairs.

this pic's entitled "a good looking baby corral"!

so, for a laugh, 

I thought I might show you a photo of me in my baby corral

apparently it wasn't too long before I learnt to lift my playpen corral and escape. Look at the size of me! It would've been easy, I'm a baby Summo wrestler!

(spot the Kewpie doll and my crocheted dress - what did I say about everything old being new again?)

Oooops, here's another photo of an obese infant. Me! With my next door neighbour at the time, who was three months older than me! My Mum was so proud that I was bigger (fatter!) than him. Really. 

Look at my Mum's cute little rockery in the background, not the baboomba in the foreground. I think it's very sweet. She painted the dead tree branch white and grew ivy atop it. I also see some succulenty cactus things growing. Funny, because today these are the very plants that make up the bulk of my own garden.

Tea towel tomorrow and then I'm going to have a bit of a bloggy break. To tell you the truth, I'm getting a bit bored with Lucy Vi at the mo, and you know, when you're bored with your own blog you'd be silly to keep writing it.

Thanks so much for reading this and all my other posts - you've been, and are, lovely x

 *  "each time history repeats itself, the price goes up"

Author unknown