Most of us already in the work force have vivid memories of practicing cursive handwriting back in elementary school. But love it or hate it, 80% of the states are now phasing it out of the public school curriculum.

What’s replacing it?

Keyboarding skills.

Now as someone who spends hours a day at her computer, I can certainly appreciate the need for students to be able to type quickly and accurately. So why does it sadden me so much to learn cursive may be headed for extinction?

Perhaps because cursive handwriting gives us one more way to express our individuality and creativity on a daily basis.

After all, even though we were all taught the same “rules” for cursive handwriting, each of us somehow managed to add our own twist so that our handwriting is distinctly and uniquely ours.

Somehow choosing a favorite font on the computer just doesn’t have the same charm.

Plus, with its twisty loops and curves, cursive adds a much needed bit of elegance to our lives. And there’s no denying that it’s waaaaay faster than printing when you need to take notes.

So as I gaze at today’s VPOD, a vintage 1950s Hermes scarf with lettering that brings back fond memories of Mrs. Chamberlain drilling us on penmanship at Poplar Street Elementary School, I’m grateful to be a member of the generation that learned this soon-to-be-ancient art.

It’s just one more tool that you can use to express your style when you’re a Vintage Crusader!

Available at Luxury-Scarves.com.

(To receive the VPOD free via email with detailed size and price information, sign up for the growing email mailing list here. Your information will never be sold or shared and you can easily unsubscribe at any time.)

I was gathering book notes yesterday and discovered this juicy tidbit reported by David M. Garner and Ann Kearney-Cooke, both experts on body image. Their study reported:

70% of women felt depressed, guilty and ashamed after looking at fashion magazines for a mere three minutes.

And I get it.

Page after page of gorgeous, fit women. Page after page of drool-worthy clothes and jewelry. Page after page of articles on all kinds of issues that you had no idea you should be worrying about.

Even if you have healthy self-esteem, it can sometimes be a challenge to get through an entire issue without feeling…less than.

Not good enough. Not rich enough. Not slim enough. Not pretty enough. Not smart enough. Not stylish enough.

This morning I took out three recent fashion magazines and randomly flipped through the pages and here’s jut a sampling of what I found:

* a page featuring a new line of handbags with all pictured items priced $4700 or higher
* an article about getting your hair “commercial worthy”
* an article asking if women are wasting unused “erotic capital,” whatever that is

Look, I subscribe to the major fashion magazines, too, but I confess I haven’t actually read any of them in months. At most, I’ve been giving them a quick flip before filing them away for future reference.

And I’m not suggesting that you not read fashion magazines, either.

They can be a guilty little pleasure and they can offer inspiration to keep your style current.

But for heaven’s sake, if they make you feel guilty or anxious or ashamed, and apparently for seven out of ten you they do, then yes, I’m suggesting you cancel your subscriptions and replace reading fashion magazines with an activity you find much more empowering and uplifting instead.

And even if you can pore over fashion magazines without them affecting your psyche in a negative way, keep in mind that for every hour you’re gazing at the models and designer clothes and living your dream of going to Cannes by vicariously reading about it secondhand, you could be actively engaged in obtaining the film skills you need to actually get you there yourself.

Instead of making a judgment about “Who Wore It Better” or getting the play-by-play on some famous person who’s famous just for being famous, you could actually spend the same time learning about an issue in your local community that can have an actual effect on your life.

Instead of consuming an entire afternoon learning about an entirely new way to tie a ponytail, why it’s so important to have thick, lustrous eyelashes and why the jeans that took you three months to save for last season are now out of style, you might want to reserve a bit of your afternoon for heavier topics like learning more about the escalating famine crisis in Africa or the record-breaking drought that has devastated much of the American south this summer.

(And if this is first you’ve heard of a famine in Africa or a drought in the South, then you really need to spend less time obsessing about ponytails and eyelashes.)

I guess all I’m suggesting is that you approach reading a fashion magazine with the same awareness and intent that you approach the rest of life.

So if you find yourself feeling guilty, depressed, ashamed or inadequate while paging through Vogue, ask yourself why.

Why does reading about this particular topic make me feel this way? Why does looking at this fashion layout bring on these feelings?

And more importantly, pay attention to the subtle sales manipulation contributing to the feeling like headlines proclaiming “what you need now” or “must-have products.” Really? Says who?

Then you can make a conscious choice if you want to continue reading and feeling bad, if you can continue reading without feeling bad, or if you want to just close the covers and go for a run or spend time with your kids.

And remember, just because all the fashion magazines and blogs are proclaiming some hot new trend doesn’t mean you have to mortgage the farm to buy into it. I’d like to suggest that you could go this entire season, for example, without jumping on board the southwest and Navajo trend.

Since this is the type of trend that’s loaded with visual impact, when this trend is over, it’ll be over and when it goes out, it’ll be OUT.

So you may want to save a whole lot of dollars by just giving the trend a nod with a fab vintage scarf like today’s VPOD.

It’s the smart way to trend for a Vintage Crusader!

Available at Spanish Moss Vintage.

(To receive the VPOD free via email with detailed size and price information, sign up for the growing email mailing list here. Your information will never be sold or shared and you can easily unsubscribe at any time.)

You know that feeling you get when you’re cleaning out your closet and you know you should get rid of something but you’re afraid that you just might need it one day?

Well, I have that same feeling with paper and information.

I admit it. I’m a Clippaholic.

I save snippets of text, quotes, pictures, ads, articles, recipes. You name it. I save it.

But until this past year I had no easy way of organizing and retrieving all this good stuff when I actually needed it. While I had good intentions to rip or clip and then neatly keep things in organized files, the end result was more like disorganized piles. I’m spent many an hour in retrieval mode mumbling “I know it’s here somewhere!”

Then I met my new best friend, Evernote.

This handy-dandy guy goes everywhere with me since he hangs out on my desktop, my laptop and in an app on my iPhone. And he helps me to remember EVERYTHING.

I just give Evernote a to-do, or scan him a magazine clipping, or ask him to remember a webpage, or print him an online receipt, or feed him that note I scribbled on the back of a napkin — anything really since there seems to be nothing he can’t remember!

Evernote gobbles them all up and then crosses-his-heart-and-hopes-to-die PROMISES that he’ll easily help me find whatever I need later when I actually need it.

And this guy Evernote is a search maniac. While he certainly likes it when I take the time to tag the stuff I’m asking him to remember, he can get the job done even when I don’t. In fact, if I treat him right he’ll even work his magic so I can find my search term in an image file!

That’s how I happened upon this Hermes ad I had passed off to Evernote somewhere in the distant past. Evernote caught that “Hermes” up on the corner of the page and he graciously (and quickly) served up the inspiration for today’s VPOD.

Now a quick glance at this ad and you’ll want to a) grow your hair long so you can wear a braided pigtail again, b) start planning a vacation to St. Bart’s or c) Google “vintage hermes scarf” so you can recreate your own version of this summer fun.

I chose Option C and my Googling quickly turned up today’s VPOD.

This vintage Hermes beauty hails from the late 70s-early 80s and features a golf motif in shocking pinks. You can choose to tie it in your hair. Or wrap it around your neck, wrist or waist. Or dangle it from a golf bag.

Any one would be a fine choice for a vintage fashionista!

Available at My Vintage Clothes Line. | Discovered at TheFind.com.

P.S. This isn’t a paid endorsement for Evernote. I’m just thrilled with how this application how streamlined my life and wanted to share. Check it out if you’re drowning in paper. It’s a lifesaver.

(To receive the VPOD via email along with detailed size, price and purchase information, sign up for my growing email mailing list here. Your information will never be sold or shared and you can easily unsubscribe at any time.)

Right now, we are in the middle of the earth’s sixth mass extinction and it’s our own dang fault.

We humans have pumped up the rate of species extinction by a factor of at least 100 and at least one renowned Harvard biologist, E.O. Wilson, predicts that within the next twenty years, we’ll have become so good at increasing the rate of extinction that the factor could jump as high as 10,000!

Plus right now, there is a fight for life going on in Ecuador, in the most biodiverse place on the planet.

As reported by Johann Hari, the oil beneath this lush 4,000 square miles of rainforest holds oil worth about $7 billion. And in the deal of the century, Ecuador’s government has agreed to forgo drilling and keep the rainforest standing if the world pays just $3.5 billion.

What a bargain!

No country has ever made a generous offer like this or even considered proposing an offer where they agree to give up significantly higher profits in order to preserve the rainforest.

Now the question is whether the world will respond.

If Ecuador doesn’t receive at least $100 million by the end of this year, the deal is off and digging and destruction of the rainforest will begin.

Now I’m guessing none of you readers have $3.5 billion tucked away to step up and save these 4,000 acres, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do anything to help.

Just one click a day at The Rain Forest Site will preserve 11.4 square feet of rainforest habitat somewhere in the world without costing you a penny.

And I can’t think of a better group of gals to help save this planet!

After all, as vintage fashionistas we already have a preservation spirit. Just imagine if we took that spirit and used it to save more than clothes!

Certainly the actual rainforest is even more worthy of rescue than today’s VPOD, which, I’m sure you’ll agree, deserved to be intercepted before it ended up in a landfill along with the other two QUADRILLION pounds of clothing we Americans discard each year!

This vintage Ferragamo silk scarf from the late 1980s or early 1990s fittingly features endangered jaguars hiding out in the jungle and their eyes are just pleading for us to help.

It’s a heart-wrenching reminder for an eco-conscious vintage fashionista!

Available at Posh Vintage. | Discovered at TheFind.com.

(To receive the VPOD via email along with detailed size, price and purchase information, sign up for my growing email mailing list here. Your information will never be sold or shared and you can easily unsubscribe at any time.)

For a charity auction benefiting the Umberto Veronesi Foundation, Pucci stuffed its colorful scarves and men’s ties into plexiglass ornaments and created a very modern, ultra-chic little christmas tree.

This designer tree will be exhibited in Rome and auctioned off with a starting bid of 500 euros.

But you can dig out your vintage scarf collection and create your own do-it-yourself version for much less that.

It’s a fun holiday decorating idea for a vintage fashionista!