August’s Let’s Look linkup is here!
In case you missed my other linkups this year, you can see those below:
- February – Ways I’ve Turned Into My Parents
- June – What I’m Making More Time For
- July – My Summer Self (How It’s Different From Other Seasons)
I’ve mentioned in some of my blog posts this year how I am enjoying all the whimsy, nostalgic things lately. So, when I saw the Let’s Look topic for this month, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to take a trip back to my childhood in the 90s!
As I was listing things out that I miss in a rough draft, I started looking up other 90s things online just to see what popped up. It brought an instant smile to my face! There were so many memories unlocked for me, and I’m so excited to share some with you today!
Be sure to check out the posts by Shay (Mix and Match Mama) and Erika (A Little Bit of Everything), as well as others at the bottom of Shay’s post!
Whether you’re a fellow 90s baby or just want to take a trip down memory lane with me to a much simpler time, grab your coffee (or fave beverage!) and let’s look at the nostalgic things I miss!
Saturday Morning Cartoons
I can remember being so excited to wake up on Saturdays super early to watch my favorite cartoons! I’d stay in my pajamas, sipping some sort of juice, and be glued to the tv for an hour or two. My favorite cartoon when I was little was Rugrats, but I loved SO many of them. Bobby’s World, Franklin, Little Bear, Arthur, The Magic School Bus, Bananas in Pajamas, Flintstones, The Jetsons, Winnie the Pooh…I could keep going, but we would be here for a while!
TY Beanie Babies & All Stuffed Animals
The TY Beanie Babies were all the rage back in the 90s! I had so many of them, including one of the most popular (the American Stars bear). I really enjoyed collecting these when I was little!
Fun fact: I was always a collector of things. I even went through a baseball card phase, and I didn’t/don’t enjoy watching baseball.
Easy Bake Oven
The number of times I burned a cake (or my fingers!) is unreal, it’s a wonder I still love to bake today – but I adored my easy bake oven! It was so cute and I really felt like the real deal trying to make all the goodies, haha. I think they still have these ovens today for kiddos, but I’m sure it’s far more advanced than the one back in my day.
Lisa Frank
Meet the beginning of my stationary obsession! I had all the folders, notebooks, pens, and even some bedding of Lisa Frank. I always loved the bright colors and mix of prints, it was just such a cool style. I really felt like my little planner heart had it all together back then. I miss the days when things were much simpler to manage!
Fun Snacks
SO many things don’t exist anymore, or even if they got revamped and “brought it back” it’s never truly the same as it used to be. I remember loving 3D Doritos (a failed comeback, in my opinion), Flintstones push pops, fruit stripes bubblegum, Dunkaroos, Squeeze-Its that had those pellets that changed colors, cream savers, lunchables, Kid Cuisine meals, the little vanilla or chocolate ice cream cups with the wooden spoons, handi-snacks cheese and crackers, kudos bars, etc.
Posters on the Walls
It was the boy band era in the 90s! I really loved all of them, but my favorite was always The Backstreet Boys. So I definitely had posters of them up on my wall, along with my fave pop artists like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and eventually Hilary Duff (I think she was early 2000s technically though!).
Actual CDs & VHS Tapes
I loved playing my CDs in my blue and gray boombox in my bedroom, or on my portable cd player that I got later on with my headphones attached. Now I just pull up YouTube and find a song there! Kids today probably have no clue about us having to use VCRs back in the day, but I always loved having my favorite Disney and Nickelodeon movies on VHS tapes. I can remember one of my Rugrats movies was actually an orange VHS tape – so fun!
Renting Video Games and Movies
I know the most well known place was Blockbuster, but there was a place called Front Row Video when I was little near our house that we went to. I loved strolling through the store, getting to pick out a movie and a video game. My mom always took me and I really enjoyed it! While I love the convenience of streaming things now, the experience as a child going through the store with a buffet of options basically was just unmatched.
IBM Computers
They may still make IBM computers, but I can remember having a large, clunky white desktop computer that I learned to type on when I was four-years-old. I’m still here typing today but had no idea technology would advance the way that it has over the years.
Anyone else remember floppy disks, Windows 97, and the cascading cards screen when you won Solitaire?
Telephone Calls
While I have turned into one of those people who prefer texting unless it’s my parents, best friend or Kyle – I do miss the simplicity of just picking up the phone and chatting with someone. It was much more personable and required you to be present. I can remember calling my grandpa every evening and I absolutely loved that. I can remember one time I was playing with my Barbies and my dollhouse and was having fun, so I called my grandpa to tell him I couldn’t chat because I was playing with my dolls. Ha ha! He said, ‘so you called me to tell me you couldn’t call me?’ and that seems so funny now, but I didn’t understand it at the time.
Also, remember the telephone book with the yellow and white pages? Now we just look up something on Google and find a phone number in two seconds!
Honorable Mentions
I could spend all day with you chatting about my favorite 90s things that I miss, but this post is a little long as-is, so I’ll just include some bullet points of some more things before I wrap this up! 🙂
- Gator Golf
- Candyland Board Game
- The Rainbow Fish
- Days of Our Lives
- Super Nintendo
- Crash Bandicoot
- Y2K
- WWF Wrestling
- Furbies
- Lip Smackers
- Jelly Shoes
- Cabbage Patch Dolls
- Tamagotchi
- Hulla Hoop
- Slap Bracelet
- Goosebumps
That’s a wrap on this month’s Let’s Look linkup, sweet friends! I so enjoyed putting this together and hope you enjoyed tagging along with me for some 90s nostalgia! I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments and what some of your favorite childhood memories are!
P.S. I think I speak for all of us ladies doing this linkup that we would love to have YOU join us! If you’re a planner like me and would like to know the upcoming topics, check out the graphic below. The linkup is the second Wednesday of every month.
Oh my goodness, this unlocked so many memories! Lisa Frank, Beanie Babies, Easy Bake Ovens, Lip Smackers, and actually going to rent a movie—I had forgotten about some of these! There really was something special about Saturday morning cartoons and having to wait for your favorite shows instead of having everything available on demand.
Your grandpa’s “so you called me to tell me you couldn’t call me?” line properly made me giggle. What a gem. Those little phone chats were everything.
I loved the 90’s, that was my era and what fantastic memories. I never had an Easy Bake Oven but always wanted one and I have tried to explain about renting movies from Blockbuster to my girls and they just can’t understand it. lol
Oh yes, I remember the Lip Smackers. I loved the Saturday morning cartoons too! I miss collecting CD’s and also picking out a movie or two at Blockbuster with friends.
Carrie
curlycraftymom.com
So, in one of my summer dizis, Muhtemel Aşk, one of the side characters made a mixed cassette tape for another character, and I was like, “Oh, the memories,” lol.
Jennifer
https://curatedbyjennifer.com
This post brought back so many memories, Ashley. I remember Saturday morning cartoons in pyjamas too, and the beanie babies (I still have one!).
I also really miss telephoning and I love that line of your grandpa’s – ‘so you called me to tell me you couldn’t call me?’ – that really made me smile!
Julia x
https://www.thevelvetrunway.com/
What a fun post! I miss Saturday cartoons as well. What a thing we all looked forward too. And yes so many great snacks. Thanks for sharing these great memories.
https://www.kathrineeldridge.com
I always love reading nostalgic posts like this!! What a fun read. Yes, to all of the above! My whole entire bedroom was plastered with posters for a long time and I hate that posters aren’t really a thing for younger kids anymore nowadays. And I totally agree about phone calls. I love picking up the phone and talking to someone still to this day and I hate that texting has completely taken over.
Ahh this post made me feel so nostalgic. I feel like in the 90s we appreciated things so much more as we had to actually go out and get stuff. I remember going to Blockbuster to rent videos and then DVDs when I had sleepovers with friends, and picking out popcorn and other snacks to watch the films with. Those days were so good!
Sarah x http://www.oomphlondon.co.uk
How funny, I was just having this conversationation wth my sister since we are both Millennials and talking about the 90s. I do miss going in to a VHS rental video store, and I think I still have some old CDs and cassettes haha… somewhere.