Vintage Mags

April 27, 2014

Vintage Mags

If you have read my little "blurb" on "Lynn's Creations" you will know that I love magazines and get lots of inspiration from them. And so it should be! After all, magazines are the products of many talented individuals .... photographers, decorators, designers etc. Artists throughout history have been inspired and influenced by other artists and I am sure that trips to galleries have launched the careers of many aspiring and emerging artists! So ..... I am always yearning to add a new mag (a mini gallery in my opinion) to my collection. I remember when my husband and I were young [BFK], and were hoping to have our own home. We collected tonnes of magazines on homes, home decor, home renovation etc. .... a friend who was visiting and spied our stack of publications seriously said, "you guys could pay cash for a house with all the money you spend on magazines"! Well, she did have a point. However, I still stand by the creative ideas and knowledge that you get from the cool things you see in the work of those who make a living at giving us images of beautiful stuff!

Years ago my youngest son used to be into comic books and he would often nag us to take him to a second hand shop that sold vintage books, coins and, to my surprise, magazines. What a discovery! They had all kinds of periodicals from Life Magazine to Martha Stewart and Family Circle. They may have been old but there were all kinds of gems inside them. From recipes and DIY instructions to a glimpse into the social values of "yesteryear", there was a wealth of inspiration! And, of course, the price was right .... instead of paying $4.00 or $5.00 for a new magazine, you only forked over a buck or sometimes .50 cents!

The other day I dropped into this secondhand place and picked up a couple of magazines that caught my eye. They were VICTORIA MAGAZINE and the issues were from 1998 and 2003. I had never heard of it but the images intrigued me. I usually prefer modern and sleek, or new and quirky, but there was something about the wispy romantic images that I saw. I also came across an article titled The Land Girls, England's Remarkable Army by Catherine Calvert. The feature was inspired by the book Land Girls by Angela Huth a story about women in England during the war who went to work on the farms in rural communities. This story reminds me of some books and TV series I encountered lately with a similar theme like: The Bletchley Circle, and Call the Midwife (viewed on Netflix) and the books The Postmistress and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I must say that as a result of browsing through these mags I have a bit of an urge to break out the china tea cups and lace doilies, that I often pooh pooh, in favor of modern or exotic items!