Retro Gran: 2012

2012 has been a year full of ups and downs for me. Ending last year convalescing from shoulder surgery, I had a lot of down time and it was then that I discovered Lisa Freemont Street's Youtube channel. I had always been drawn to vintage clothing, antiques and all sort of kitsch and immediately fell in love with her channel and started to seek out others like it. I already owned a few vintage dresses but hardly ever wore them-I was one of those ladies that feared being different. But, after much soul searching and self discovery, I decided that I was a vintage girl at heart, so why not be who I truly was. I decided to delve into the world of wearing vintage hairstyles plus started collecting more vintage, reproductions, and retro styled clothing. My goal is to supply my complete wardrobe with said items and donate my modern clothes. But, a downfall of convalescing is my diet began to get lax and I have put on weight. This makes shopping for clothing difficult, or rather more depressing than joyful, so I have been very particular about what I have gotten and have held off on many purchases until I can get my weight under control.

So many things have happened over the course of this year. Joyous occasions such as the birth of a new grandchild along with two of my other grandchildren celebrating first birthdays, my youngest sons,which are twins, graduated high school, and we finished off the year with the wedding of my second oldest son. I went through some changes with my job and I also began my blog and have met many wonderful fellow bloggers.

Although most all of this year has been wonderful for me, I've also had some not so joyous occasions, most recently with the news that my father has a terminal illness. This is a difficult time for my family but we are so thankful that we have had the privilege of calling him our father and grandfather.

In this post I wanted to share the things that have happened in my world throughout this past year, not necessarily a "best of" but more of a chronicle of the year, and what better way to do that than by sharing photos of the things that transpired. So, without further rambling on from me, here is my year in pictorial review.

I started the year exploring vintage hairstyles and authentic ways to achieve them, plus some not so authentic ways. Through a lot of trial and error, I have achieved some pretty good successes and learned from my failures.

Retro Gran learning how to pincurl her hair.

I wanted to have the option of longer hair so I purchased hair extensions.

The year also brought some storms our way. We really only had one major snow storm all last winter and it was late into the season, close to spring. Then spring brought lots of flash floods and summer brought an extreme heat wave with severe weather, tornadoes, and power outages. This year also brought us a Blue Moon and a Super Moon, both of which were grand sights to see.

The only real snow we had last winter was in March of this year.

Flash floods wreaked havoc on the mulch in my flower beds, not to mention my sons truck.

View of a SuperMoon from our front porch

This was the sight we saw while driving through a severe hail storm. Poor quality picture taken with my phone but - Scary!

Within my family we saw the birth of a new grandchild, graduation for our sons, senior prom for my niece, a wedding for my second oldest, and the celebration of first birthdays for two more of my grandchildren.

Our boys graduated, so proud of them and so thankful that part of their and our lives is over.

Two of my grandbabies achieved the milestone of first birthdays. What fun we had.

I had the privilege of helping my niece get ready for her senior prom.

The tremendous blessing of a new bundle of joy.

The love and joy of gaining a new daughter and grandson - officially.

We also had the addition of a beautiful British Shorthair kitty to our pet family which we named Oliver. It has been several years since we have had a cat in our house so we are enjoying his liveliness immensely. Although, I must say that our English Mastiff, Tucker and our Rottie/Lab mix, Reaver could probably have lived happily without him.

Reaver is our old faithful family pet and the best dog you could ever want.

Tucker is his mommy's baby. He has truly captured my heart and I think Santa liked him too because he brought him a gigantic elk antler.

Our new kitty, Oliver. He is such a ball of energy and joy.

My projects for the year were fewer than in years past, partly because of recovering from my shoulder surgery, but mainly because we have a toddler living in our home at present which I'm sure many of you know, its very hard to get things accomplished except during nap time, and being that I work full-time I usually was out of the house during that precious time. But I did manage to get some yard work done and we installed a new water line. My sewing was very minimal this year but I did whip up a diaper bag for my son and his fiance and created a dress for my granddaughter. I spent a lot of time socializing my grandson and mastiff together and still found time to create 20 cakes and 200 cupcakes.

Hey, I can operate a tractor with the best of them!

Ditch for the new water line all the way through our front yard.

My grandson and Tucker have become the best of friends.

My granddaughter loved her Hungry Caterpillar dress.

Diaper bag - I have another one to make so maybe I will do a tutorial with it.

I only make cakes for my family, but we have a HUGE family! I created this one for my nieces 18th birthday.

Throughout the year, the Mister and I succeeded in escaping on several little getaways. We hiked the trails of Gatlinburg, Tennessee and wandered the streets of Pigeon Forge several times this year. We took a couple of the grandchildren to the North Carolina Zoo, survived a torrential downpour of rain on Grandfather Mountain, spent a week with my sister's family at the Outer Banks, and ventured out to Ripley's Aquarium. We also visited my hometown and a local cemetery for Memorial Day.