I hope you all enjoyed my birthday video and got a chance to see my three little special guests. It was a hoot to film! I promised in the video that I would share some of my birthday goodies with some photos and links in case you too would like to score them as well.

Aside from the actual vintage items if you are interested in some of the vintagey items I acquired, here are some links that you may find useful:

Those are a few of the links but let me know if you see anything I didn't include and need to know where I scored it. I had a blast sharing my birthday with you!

Yay! I cannot believe I am 39! Whoot! Here I go on this amazing adventure and my 39 New Experiences Before 40 challenge officially begins.

I had a such a lovely birthday weekend and I wanted to share a bit of it with you via my latest video on my YouTube channel. Everything that you see in this video I will include closer photos of in my next post tomorrow and also links to where you too can score these items. You may notice that I gifted myself presents for this birthday but on my challenge list I did say I wanted to spoil myself plus why the heck not. Gift yourself and show yourself heaps of self love. What a better way than gifting yourself vintage inspired books and movies and oodles of pretty things?

I hope you have been enjoying my YouTube videos. Eventually I will create a schedule for them but at the moment I am just having fun and learning how to do them. If you would like to see something special on one of my videos, let me know. Also feel free to subscribe and spread the vintage word on my YouTube channel! Thank you!

Tune in tomorrow for a closer look at the beautiful vintage wrapping paper I used (and plan to reuse in an art project) and most of my amazing gifts that I received for my birthday. Thank you again to all those who spoiled me and sent me birthday with, you truly made my day extra, extra special!

Thank you all for your thoughtful birthday wishes. I have to say I had the best birthday ever this past weekend. It all started with a birthday card from my children and breakfast from my husband. Then we dropped our children off at my brother's home and headed off the Prema Hair Salon (formerly  the location of Pimps and Pinups). The weather was a bit rainy and snowy but lucky we found parking right in front of the salon. I tease my husband all the time and tell him that I am his good luck parking charm. It isn't an easy task to find parking in Manhattan.

I got my hair cut and styled a beautiful 1960's style I have been wanting for a quite some time by a wonderful hairdresser named Dale. The salon is Australian owned and Dale moved all the way from Sydney just to work at the salon. He was lovely and have me some incredible tips on 1960's hair styling and how to recreate the look he was giving me. I cannot wait to experiment more with my hair!

Afterwards we headed to the iconic Russian Tea Room for an Afternoon Tea. It was founded in 1927 by members of the Russian Imperial Ballet. The decor is mouth watering and I felt like I was transported back in time.

Our tea was lovely with an array of mini sandwiches, caviar, and desserts. The service was impeccable and they even surprised me with a candle on top of my desserts. This vintage girl couldn't have asked for a more memorable experience in such an historically iconic restaurant.

I wore my brand new dress from Boden, one of my favorite clothing shops, in which I won via an Instagram contest. I love Boden because the pieces are so well made and many of their items have a 1960's style to them. I paired it with my pearl earrings and necklace which my husband gifted me after the birth of our daughter.

My day wasn't over after my haircut and tea. We spent the rest of our evening with my brother and his family and my babies. They had such a blast being with their little cousin. My sister in law also cooked an insanely delicious Puerto Rican meal especially for me. I received a wonderful text from my best friend in England and a phone call from my other best friend who lives in Florida and that was just the cherry on top.

The kiddies really wanted me to open my gifts and blow out my special "39" candles but I was so tired when I got home that I saved it for the next day which I will share with you tomorrow.

How have you decided to celebrate your special day this year? Are you planning on going to any vintage locations?

Today I am a Birthday Girl! Yay! I haven't wait for this day in what seemed forever but in retrospect this month has zipped by! Incredible, right?

I am off having some special birthday adventures that I will immediately share with you all as soon as I can. In the meantime, when I was planning my birthday I asked myself how I could incorporate more vintage into my actual celebration. You will see how I did so when I post my outing but I wanted to share with you five easy ways you can add a little vintage into your own birthday celebrations.

Outings are not always possible and finding vintagey places to go to are not always easy to find for some but these five little things are just a click away as I found some neat birthday items on Etsy.

Sending out vintage birthday invitations, using vintage cake decorations or candles, wrapping presents in vintage paper, or wearing a pretty vintage dress/frock are ways that you can easily incorporate vintage into your special day or in the day of someone you care for.

Some of you have been with me since the very beginning of my blogging journey about four years ago and some of you are new especially to AVN. I wanted to make a little video for you to share a bit more about myself, things you may or may not have known.

If there is ever a time you have a question for me please don't hesitate to email me at avintagenerd@gmail.com, comment on one of my posts, find me on my Instagram. or send me a message via my YouTube Channel.

There seems to be a scarcity of films and television shows that are set during the turn of the last century or around the Great War so when I found Birdsong I knew I had to check it out. It is based on the 1993 war novel by Sebastian Faulks by the same name. It stars Eddie Redmayne and Clemence Poesy (from the Harry Potter films) as forbidden lovers with WWI as its backdrop.

The film focuses mainly on the story of Stephan Wraysford (Redmayne) and is told in a series of flashbacks from before the war to during the war. I have to say I really like how they used the flashbacks to set the tone and explain why Wraysford was the way he was. In doing so you really got a chance to get into his mindset and understand him. Then again Redmayne is a superb actor.

His affair with a young and married Isabelle Azaire (Poesy) is the recurring theme throughout his experiences in war. It is as though that love was haunting him. I found that to be refreshing since you often watch a story of a female being haunted by such experiences, you get a chance to see it through a young man's eyes.

I have to say I did not fall in love with Redmayne and Poesy as a couple. I didn't empathize with her character as much as I did his and in some ways I found them to be mismatched. Usually you can feel yourself cheering for a couple to be together but I felt like it was doomed from the beginning because she always gave that impression that it would be doomed.

I did love the friendships he had with fellow officers Weir (Richard Madden) and Jack Firebrace (Joseph Mawle) which I found believable and very moving.

Watching the film made me more intrigued to find out how the story goes in the book so I will have to get my hands on that at some point.

Redmayne was excellent and viewing another story set during WWI was just another opportunity to learn more about that time. I enjoyed it very much and it is available on Netflix via dvd and in Amazon HERE.

Have you see Birdsong? Have you read the book? What did you think about it?

After the passing of Shirley Temple-Black early last year I really, really wanted to watch a documentary on her life. I Immediately put this particular one on my Netflix queue and it has little stayed there for the entire year! I simply gave up (it was on the long list) and asked Santa for a copy and I am so glad that I was finally able to watch it.

I have always been a fan of Shirley's and especially found the films that she did as a child be sort of magical. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the documentary but was disappointed that it didn't begin with, "Shirley Temple was born..." I learned nothing about her life prior to acting as this documentary focused solely on her career that started out with acting and ended up with politics.

I definitely learned more about her life as an actress and how much politics meant to her during her adult years. I can honestly say that she was one phenomenal woman.

If you are a fan of Shirley's like I am, I say watch this documentary. If not, you can also try reading, Child Star: An Autobiography.

Mrs. Temple-Black was many things during her 85 years of life. She was a Hollywood icon, a dancer, singer, a public servant, a diplomat, a wife, a mother, and a grandmother. I look at her life in amazement because she accomplished so much.

I plan on dedicating a few posts on Shirley and her films but I wanted to ask you first, what are your favorite Shirley Temple films?

A shop filled with retro candy and vintage inspired toys was just up my alley so we took the kids and off we went on a little adventure. I was amazed at all the neat goodies they have in their shop from toys to lunchboxes and games. They even had an old-fashioned soda cooler with glass coca-cola bottles in it.

There were rows and rows of candies in jars and I literally could have stayed for hours in there just looking at great items they have. Of course when entering a shop filled with toys and candy I couldn't ask for a seven, five, and four year old to contain themselves for more than 15 minutes. We stayed a short while because honestly my children wanted everything in the shop but we did walk away with a candy for each of them and a toy. They were thrilled!

I loved the cozy feeling I got when I entered and I noticed a great deal of local loyal costumers that came in while we were there. At the end of our first visit we were offered free popcorn from their popcorn machine which my first son indulged in (the other two don't like popcorn). We found that to be a really sweet gesture and appreciated the kindness.

I have to say if you are looking for a shop that gives you that nostalgic feel or if you have a hankering for some old time candies that you cannot find anywhere, stop by Bobb Howard's General Store. I know that we look forward to returning back and doing a bit more shopping for some old fashioned goodies!