HEY OHOY!

I just won the bidding on this little sailor dress on e-bay. That makes me very happy.



(Happy on certain levels, that is. I just read the newspaper that I didn't have time to finish in the morning and it strook me again, as everyday, how many sad and wrong things happen. All the time. Everywhere. There are news and articles everyday that makes me sad or angry. But one thing in the paper made me happy:

Mocha, the baby elephant in Thailand that lost its leg after stepping on a landmine got a prothese and can walk again. And even though the background to the Mocha story is very sad, this picture still made me smile and and wanting to cry a bit in the same time (I always cry a bit if I'm tired and read something that affects me in the paper. I'm a wino when I'm by myself).

EUROPEAN SPRING CHIC

...I actually had a lot of better things to do...


But it's the 29th of February.
So I just had to post something today.
And I don't seem to be able to get any work done.
I wonder if I should do yet another set? (no! no! no! Work, goddammit!)

WALL CANDY

This a mirror and I want it.

Mission for today : go check out Domestic.fr. They have candy for your walls - for your whole home actually. Design candy. Vinyl stickers, wall paintings, super cute porcelain plates, mirrors (like the fabulous one in the picture above) and more.

If I had a bigger flat with more free wall surface I might go for something like this (and if or whenI have kids I'll get them somtehing by Klaus Haapaniemi for their wall, like in the third picture below):





www.domestic.fr

AH, SPRINGTIME!

Even though it's only February one can still feel spring in the air, it's warm. Mid-European winter climate, here we come! It's a bit sad too - the climate change has been pretty obvious the past years so I might be enjoying myself now but I'll curse all of this when the golf-course changes and we all freeze to death or so. Me and my small pretty shoes in the middle of the winter, blah!

Well, anyway, I like the bright light in early spring - it makes everything look so sharp and all facades on the houses look so clean and architectual somehow. I love to do walks in spring (even in shoes that may be just a little bit too small, ouch), and I took a nice on yesterday in a part of town close to mine, an area that I adore.

(Today it's been raining but the sun peeks from behind the clouds every now and then and that feels nice too. Great, so now you all know that. Over and out from the weather blog...)

A BIT TOO SMALL PUMPS AND A NEW TRY WITH THE BLACK PUFFY TEE...

Blouse - Diesel, Dress - s&m
Pumps - my granmother's old
Tights - from the supermarket



It's been so woderfully springlike weather lately (until today) - dry and sunny outside. My flat looks all brigt and light too, the only downside beeing that one definately notices it's getting time for a big spring cleaning at home...

Since the weather's been so nice outside I tried to wear my grandmothers old shoes, a pair of black suede pumps from the 1940's. They're still in excellent condition and maybe the most beautiful shoes I have (they're so small and nicely shaped). But they're are about 1/2 size too small for me, so I can only wear them in short dozes. But over here there is a saying that goes something like "if you want to be pretty you have got to suffer"...

And I bought that puffed sleeve shirt again to replace the one that mystically disappeared earlier... I hope this one won't pull the same trick.

APPLE PIE

It was snowing when I woke up on Sunday morning. We had plans to go ice skating with K but I guess we both realized it was not going to happen the night before already. Since too many of my Sundays are just spent either sleeping, hangover or by being a bit of a computer geek, I thought I'd do something nice with this one.

I decied to bake my special apple pie and do some hot cocoa for my friend M, who was sick. She recently moved away to Oslo and came here for the weekend but had such a terrible flue she couldn't meet up with anybody. I took K with me to go cheer her up. I was hoping to walk there in the snow fall, but by the time I actually got up and got the pie done the snow had turn into rain, but the walk over to M's place was still quite refreshing.

I really hope we don't get sick now though.

Here's what I put in my apple pie (it's vegan):
1,5 parts of spelt flour (that's a lot healthier than basic wheat and has a nice nut- like taste to it), 1,5 parts of oatmeal and 1 part brown sugar, some cinammon and a bit of clover. Then I add all-vegetabel margarine until the dough is moist but not too sticky. Top it with sliced apples (you have to stick them in the dough a bit to get the right consistecny) and some chardamom. All organic stuff, it tastes better that way. I put it in the oven, about 175 C, and bake until it's ready. I'm not so in to details when I cook so it depends a bit from time to time. But it takes approx. 40 minutes for it to bake. Piece of cake. Somtimes I put some strawberries or black currants among the apples for a bit of a change. The pie is great with itofu ice cream (or dairy ice cream too of course). Yum yum.

SATURDAY WITH YELLOW SHOES AND A CANDY BAG

I may have been out in fab shoes and K with a nice new dress but Satyrday night wasn't that great this time. It was a bit strange actually. After a birthday party K and I ended up in jazz - hell, where it felt like the same song was playing over and over again. Later on we almost got into a fight when some idiots tried to steal a cab from a blind girl who had been queuing just in front of us in the taxi line for almost an hour. We had to wait for a cab so long after that we could have walked home back and forth a couple of times. But I was pleased to see my cats had warmed up my bed for me as I got home; they were lying there purring and waiting for me.

OH! OH! OH!

La la la la laa, tonight I'll be dancing in these! I walked passed a shop and just saw a glimpse of the their colour in the window and five minutes ltaer these Bianco babies were mine! Tonight I'll wear them with black or grey tights (have to make up my mind soon since I'm running a bit late as always...), but I want to go get some tights in the same colour for that one-coloured look.

TO GET YOU IN THE FRIDAY MOOD...

There is no better song to do you make up to, open a bottle of wine, sip on a martini and smoke from the window to while waiting for the night to begin than this:

(No better song than THIS ONE, which is a cover by April March on the song above. I actually do prefer her version because it's more edgy, but it doesn't really have a video that I could post.)

Man Serge Gainsbourg is good!
(He wrote the song.)

ART DECO!

Symphony in black

I'm going to go through some fashion illustrators and graphic designers I like, without any cronologichal order. First up is Erté. He's the man when it comes to Art Deco poster design!

Erté was born in Russia in 1892, but lived and worked in France. His actual name was Romain de Tertoff, he took his artist pseudo from the french pronounciation of his initials R.T.

Erté's style defines graphic design of the art deco area. He did several covers for Harpesr's Bazaar and numerous posters. But he also did fashion- and costume design, mostly for film and theatre, and sculptures. I admire his detailed serigraphs but most fond I'm of his clean, rather abstract covers from the thirties.

Some of his cover designs:




Fashion:


Serigraphs:




Erté was active until his death in 1990, and some of his most famous works (like "symphony in black" above)are from as late as the eighties, when art deco had a revival.

So do me a favour and go picture-google him, ok! Or then look at his works at erte.com or erte.ru.
(BTW, why are so many webpages featuring artist so old-school internet ugly and bad to navigate in?!!)

SO CALLED SHOPPING AND SO CALLED WORK

Skirt- my grandmother's old, Blouse and belt - Indiska, Tights - H&M
The most pink nails you can get - Rimmel no811 "Pulsating"
and even more pink lips - Dior no565 "Devislish rose"

As I've mentioned every now and then, I freelance around with quite many things, not just design. Yesterday I did some mysteryshopping, you know, when you seem to go out shopping but actually evaluate the sales personnel and the store in general. At first it was much harder than I thought because there are so many things that you must do, stuff to ask the sales assistants and so on, things that I might not do when I go shopping 'for real'. I am not allowed to buy anything when doing this, but one of the skirts I tried on really tempted me, so I might go back and get it some other day...

Work. Mostly I am content with my work constellations. As said before, I do a lot of work from home and then I do some random things, but I'm also employed at a couple of companies. This means that some weeks I'm constantly working, while I have about every second week free, when I work from home or then just don't work at all.

Still sometimes I wonder weather I should just "cut my hair and get a real job" (Ok, I'm not going to cut my hair but I guess you all get the point). There are days when get deeply stressed and feel kind of a social pressure that I should apply for some actual poisiton, but then there are days when I wouldn't change the fact that I for example can go for a week's holiday just like that and still keep my official vacation later on. Or go out on any weekday and sleep as late as I want the next morning. (On my free weeks, that is)

One of my test-shops yesterday were at a mall close to where my parents live; where I spent my childhood. In the bus I met my old classmate, who had moved back there after some years abroad. We were good friends when we were ten, but now we don't really know each other that well anymore, we've only met briefly during the past ten years. She was working as an airplane hostess, loked great, and was strangely enough quite up to date with what I was doing - we've added each other on facebook some time ago. (I'm a bit ashamed to say I hardly check up on anyone on facebook, except for the people I hang out with all the time anyway). She said that she was always checking out the photos my sister and I post from work and the parties we go to and to her it seemed that we were out and about all the time. "I always think, that oh, how do you keep up with that. Quite the life you have there" she said, sounding both enthusiastic and a bit ironic at the same time (but she sounded like that when she was ten too now that I think about it...).

Well, it is of course one thing what your life like looks like on the outside ( or in facebook, hrmm...) and another what it actually is, but I still got a good feeling from that and realized that since I'm mostly enjoying myself it's not really time to cut the hair and get that job yet. I might even never have to do that. Phew.

THE WARMEST DRESS EVER

It was quite cold in the weekend so I dresed myself warm here at home in my mothers old knitted dress with a thick turtleneck.I really like this dress, it's both warm and soft and figure flattering at the same time. But I never wear it outside the house because I can't really find the occasion - it's too warm for bars or shopping, but maybe it'd be good if I worked in an office, or perhaps suitable for a nice sunday walk and some coffee somewhere. But but but. The main reason I only wear it at home is the fact I have no idea what shoes or jacket to wear it with. My flat black suede boots? Or the cognac-coloured boots with a high square heel? The few times I've gone outside in this dress I've worn it with my mom's old brown suede boots with a low heel but semi-thick sole. And I really don't have any jacket that would go toghether with this dress. What kind should you wear with long straight dressed like this one, a long coat?

CHARMING

I'm quite intrigued Thomas Sabo's charms and pendants. Shiny robots, flying saucers and rockets, snakes and apples inspired by Adam&Eve, glittering small shoes and turntables... Most of them are a bit corny and sort of "too much" for me, but that's also what I like about them.

Nowadays I wear quite little jewellery. A charm bracelet or glittering pendants is something I wouldn't really see myself wearing, but lately I've been trying not to think in matters of "what I wear and what I don't" - one can get too stuck within one's own style. The thought of me wearing a white dress was strange but when I actually did it wasn't really a big deal (of course not). Not that a charm bracelet would be a drastic change to my style either :)
And a little bit of bling bling in everyday life is never wrong.

I got a charmbracelet as a gift many years ago but haven't worn it for ages. I tried to look for it and found it's box, but the bracelet was gone. If I'd make myself one now it'd have to have a pair of cherries, an anchor and two black cats.

Some more charms by Thomas Sabo:





But where the hell do you turn the music off at the Thomas Sabo webpage?!?!
www.thomassabo.com

NICE LEFTOVERS

Some days ago I wrote about how I am annoyed at the fact that I don't have as much time as I would like to to browse around thrift/charity shops and fleamarkets, but still have some great luck with nice things finding their way to me instead.

When I was younger I shared a flat with two guys for a couple of years. It was quite a big flat in a nice area but with terrible neighbours that hated us (propably due to the fact that we, on the night of our housewarming party and after a series of unhappy coincidents, had a fire on our balcony which included seven heavy fire fighting vehicles and shutting the whole street down. There was no damage to the house or flat hough - it was just a wooden flowerbox that set itself on fire because it was too close to the ashtray. Everything was sorted out later on but some of the neighbors never got over it and really made things difficult for us for the three years we lived there).

Aaanyway, that old flat was full of left over stuff from previous owners. A lot of it was crap that we got rid of or stuffed in the attic, but there were also some really nice things. I took this lamp with me and keep it in my kitchen now:


Later one of the guys moved away but he left this old frame behind, I'm not sure if he found it in one of the cupboards in his room or from somewhere else but I made a mirror out of it:

(The bow is not part of the frame though, I just keep it on top of the mirror becuase I always put my hair up with it in the mornings).

MISS VALENTINE

Post 101 btw. Yeey.



Sometimes you see people that look so good they just outshine everyone else.

Yesterday evening was really cold, everyone was walking heads down against the wind except for this stunning girl that walked pass me. (She must have been quite cold in her tiny clothes but she didn't seem to mind. Maybe she was on her way to a hot valentines date.)

I noticed her light yellow eyeshadow togehter with red lips, a makeup that looked really good. I don't think that combination would work on a pale complexion though, atleast not with blonde hair... (but I do have a dark yellow eyeshadow that looks nice when I'm tanned, even though red lips are a no-no then).

IT'S WEDNESDAY NIGHT ONCE A WEEK, AGAIN

I'm going to the music quiz tonight again and I'm going to look like I really know a lot about everything that has anything to do with music and stress out the other teams. (Our team has actually improved and we already have three points in this season's chart. Yeeey!)

shirt from Encore

I always want to wear this shirt, this outfit specifically , with red shoes. I wish I had a pair of semi-high, red suede boots, preferrably from the sixties.

I'd also like to wear it with my red peeptoes. But it's too wet and cold for them now, so those'll just have to wait.

And once I'm at it - most of all I would like to wear the shirt and the red peeptoes together with a leather pencil skirt I did not buy at a thrift shop some years ago. I regret it now and I haven't found another one that fitted as well or looked as good.(I punished myself for that by buying a fake leather skirt that is too tight and too short for me for €4,90 from Gina Tricot's winter sale. I'm never going to wear it). But anyway, this would be a totaly different outfit already.


I'l get back to work now and listen to some good old Skatalites. Music quiz starts at eight, hope we rock it tonight.

GREY, BLACK AND DOGOOTH - some more of outfits on others

I spotted this girl on town some time ago. She had a funny looking cap with doogtooth pattern, a balloon skirt and light grey wool leggings on very skinny legs. I'd like to have a pair of wool leggings too.

ANOTHER POINT OF VIEWING

I'm fascinated by photographer Bela Borsodi's delicious still photos and way of showing objects from a different point of view or in a concept out of their own.

(I've seen some of his photos separatly before but didn't know whose they were until I read a post about him on Blaspheme Bourne's blog.)

From some of his editorials:

TREASURES IN THE TRASH

I used to be quite the thrifter before (when I was a hippie. I didn't just dress like one, but I had a somewhat different lifestyle too, both on good and bad). Back then I could'nt buy anything new, but I also had a lot more spare time - I was still in school, later studying and working only a little bit. Even though I live in an area with a lot of small thrift shops I visit those and fleamarkets much less than I'd wish to do. And all because a lack of time - I wok a lot, I work out quite much and my weekends are often spent sleeping too late due to nights on the town.

But still, I get quite lucky.
Unlike Muhammad, the mountain often does come to me.

About a year ago I was taking out the trash and found this in the bin:
This old suitcase has stickers from the thirties and forties from all over Europe on it! It's a bit fragile so I just have it as a decoration in our livingroom. It matches the colour of our chairs too. I really like it.

Among a lot of books, some of which I saved from the bin, was this little leaflet:


A dressing guide for women that came as an attachement to the Eva magazine in 1962. It has stylish drawings in it. Charming! Some of the rules still apply, if you want to dress up properly for a tuxedo dinner (or a tea party:)...

ICE ICE BABY

(Ok. Sorry about that headline. Vanilla ice is just awful.)


My parents gave me a great present for christmas; ice skates. I haven't had a pair for years. That also means I haven't skated for years either. Quite excited about it, I was planning to go ice skating with K. We were both laughing about how it propably would be - we'd dress up all nice and layered in knits and socks and scarves but most likely we'd only skate for a bit on shaky legs, then retry for some hot chocolate or black currant juice (and we'd propably smoke some cigarettes too, even though that does really not go all that well togehter with the ice-princess look).

I've always had this image of me ice skating looking girly a dress and wearing lots and lots of layers, maybe because when I was a little girl mom would always dress me up really practical and warm for skating (of course!) while I just wanted to look like an ice princess...

Alix and Clara seem to know what I'm talking about...




I went skating some days ago with J and my parents . And hah, I didn't look a bit like an ice princess but dressed up warm and practical, just like my mother taught me (well good too see that I've learned at least something) because it was quite windy and cold outside. It wan't that bad though, I was wearing my mom's old ski outfit from the late 70s, very tight, very retro, quite warm (you know, no high-tech fabrics back then...). And a white knitted cap that makes me look a bit like a big baby! I wan't that crappy at all, after the first few shaky minutes I remembered the whole skating-thing and had fun!