STRIPES, PETTICOAT AND LEDERHOSEN

The combo of a black skirt and striped shirt is something I could return to forever and forever. Which I do, in different variations.Yesterday I spiced the usual set up with knitted red tights.

 And Dag was wearing his lederhosen t-shirt.

The word whimsical has always annoyed me a bit, but yesterday one could say I felt a bit so which made it a good day to remember to use those petticoats of mine. (Which is not that bad of an idea actually as they apart form making any big skirt better also help keep warm outside.)

Dag loves petticoats and fluff too.
But he on the other hand think they work best for chewing and drooling on.

Btw if someone wonders if I actually went out in the snow with those small suede vintage shoes the answer is of course no, they are just for inside use for the moment.

When going out it's winterboot- and knitted socks time already!

Which I try to avoid as much as possible! There's a blizzard outside and I have raw lime pie, pepermint tea and newly put-up Christmas lights at home. Cosy levels are up!

The skirt is from Vivien of Holloway, petticoat via BooBoo Kitty Coutore, the shoes vintage and Dag's lederhosen trompe l'oeil shirt was bought in Bavaria.

THE JOY OF GIVING...

...away a gift card to Years Since Yesterday!

Yes, I've always been more of a giver than a taker. Sort of. Now that Chrismas is approaching at least.
My friend Ina, who runs the etsy vintage store Years Since Yesterday, will be closing it during winter as she is going away to restock (and do other things too, obviously) and was kind enough to run a little pre-Chrstimas give away before that! The store has Finnish and American vintage; clothes and accessories for women mainly but also some items for men.
The giveaway is for a gift card of 20 euros (about 27 dollars).

In order to enter, like Years Since Yesterday on Facebook  -as you may already do since the last giveaway- and head over to the store and check out what you like! Leave a comment about that here on this post!

And as usual the winner will be drawn randomly, so only one comment per person, unless you share which gives you one more entry per share. And, no anonymous comments or unreachable accounts or so; you are not able to win if I can't get a hold of you.

The giveaway is open until December 5th when the winner will be announced!
Good luck!

PS1. for inspireation you can check out Years Since Yesterday on Pinterest
PS2. You have one more day's time to enter the ahai-giveaway too :)

ALL THOSE SHOES JUST WAITING TO BE WORN

Alright, everybody gather 'round the table, it's first world club meeting time!

No but really. Remember this thing with 'it's alright to buy new shoes if they are in a colour I don't already own'-thing? That should apply to all shoes except for black and red ones? And winter boots? And possibly something else, if it gets really tight? (Haha). Well some time ago I stumbled upon a pair of very very nice orange heels in a very delicious shade. And for a while it felt like it just had to be done, the button just had to be clicked, orange shoes will solve all problems, ever. The clothing related ones at least. Not so sure about the rest, the economy, world peace  and so on, really. But in the end I actually was able to resist the temptation and now a few days later wonderful pretty perfect orange shoes does not seem that special anymore.

Shoes are really the tricky part, over here at least. Weather wize. I am trying to organize and clean up in the bed room and it is like the shoes in the drawers and on the rack in my closet are all going "Me! Me! Remember me! Wear me!" I am much of  a periodical wearer as in I tend to wear some things a lot for some time and forget about the rest. Combine that with the weather conditions over here a lot of my shoes will have to continue their silent shouting. Funny how one (often, over here, me at least) gets oneself The Winer coat and The Winter Boots; one pair and one pair only, when winter here is almost half of the year. And then those few months of maybe warm, perhaps sunshine, has more than plenty to go with.

These are quite comfy actually but they are so open they are pretty much sandals which is a kind of bye bye after mid Semptember already. Or earlier...

I have always worked a lot with quite little time to strut around in all those nice things that I have and now that I work less I rehears more and push the pram and lots of bags and babies (alright yes, only one baby) around which means still quite little time for most of those pretty shoes. Sniff. And now it's snowing already. Perhaps next spring I can go all latte-mamma and hang around cafées with Dag in my lap and my lovely heels on my feet, a different pair a day. Or then I just have to go to more parties at night. Hah!

My first Parikkas... I used these a lot a few years back while living in the city centre. Nowadays they feel a little posh for that walk to the supermarket, even for me. More parties it is!

And these! Semi-comfy and waterproof! I had forgot about these. They will come around. Soon. Or once the snow goes away.

Obviously, if I would live in a warmer climate somewhere else this would be less of an issues. But then again I'd propably would not have the option of free healthcare and free univeristy studies, and possible huge shitty spiders in the cornerns and earth quakes and so on. So I can bear with it.

Who would ever have thought pale pink shoes would be so hard to wear in the end. Sigh.

And, furthermore, I have to add that the actual issues is just that I have too many shoes.
But do you know which colour the shoes are that I wear all the time? Mostly because those are the heels that are comdy enough to take allt the prams babies and bags, but also because they go with so much. Off white, brown and mint green. Which sort of makes it seem like to orange ones could have a chance? You know, according to some kind of logic. Hmmm...

Do you have more shoes than you can handle?

KITCHEN!

You remember the country house kitchen?

That first when I came around there looked liked this?





That we then pimped up a little to look like this?

Well, here's how it looks for the moment!



It's all very exciting.

TIKI TIME!

Yesterday I did a show at Kokomo, the tiki restaurant.
I always love myself a good excuse to dress up and go all tiki! And to have LOTS of tiki drinks. Especially now in November.


The dress is from Bettie Page clothing, a set I bought just before Dag was born, although then  I of course couldn't use but the top (here). And after the delivery I had to add a safety pin to be able to close this in the waist, and didn't really look that good in it even. But now this one is  already on the bigger side for me. Haha! A great dress none the less, and I absolutetly totally and very much love the pattern. And clashing it with another pattern I love, leopard.

 (I love the fact that I am all back to normal by now but I kind of miss that big belly of mine. Have to do one more round then I guess :)

If somebody wonders the shoes ar a couple of years old or so, bought in Tallinn, and the leopard bow belt is from Carlings, many many years ago. Btw something like 2006 is so long ago already, if you think about it. Not to mention, well, 2003 for example. I didn't even read my email every day back then. Nor have internet of my own in my crib.Whoah.

MY TOP FIVE SUPER SWEETS

Most of you know by now that I have a huge sweet tooth. I could probably eat cake until I'd die. Really.
Of course, I could wave goodbye to my wardrobe if I'd give in to my sweet cravings all the time. But, after Dag was born I've been making more sweets than usual while still getting rid of that 20kg of baby chump, since I've just ditched the sugar and used dates and other dried fruits more instead.
I've always been a huge fan of dates in all forms. I could probably eat those 'til I'd die too!

Here are my top-five easy to make sweets that still are so healthy you could have them breakfast just as well. Which I do. These are all vegan, and basically raw:

The creamy chocolate mousse on avocado. You can read the recipe in this post. You can freeze this to get a sort-of ice cream, although I prefer this as a mousse.



Fig fudge. I've been making a big square out of this and cut slices for breakfast, sometime with peanut butter and/or apple slices on. I've also added  sea buckthorn powder to the batch, it brings a great sour vibe to the fudge. You could add some lemon peel as well. Or cinammon and other spices for Christmas! Find the recipe here.



Frozen pineapple mash. This is somethings I make in summer if it's very hot, as the cold base for a smoothie or just as a sherbet-like snack. Mash fresh pineapple in the mixer and blend with a few spoons of water or fruit juice - or use mashed pineapple from a can instead (I mostly used canned). Put in the freezer for a couple of hours so that the fruit is between chilled and frozen. Ridiculously simple but better than you'd expect. That of course depends on what you expect but yeah yeah you get the point.

Cocoa-coconut balls. It's really common over here to make candy balls of butter, sugar, oatmeal, cocoa and coconut. Every bake sale or school disco has them. My mom always made coconut balls for New Year's, rolling them in sliver folio. We called them Bobos. I don't know where that name came from. Anyway, here's how to make Bobo's vol 2.0:
1 part hazel nuts (or hazelnuts and almonds)
1 part sun flower seeds
1 part dates, soak them a while if they are very dry
coconut flakes
cocoa powder
cold pressed coconut oil
Amaranth pop, real vanilla powder

Mix the nuts and the seeds into a chunky paste in a mixer or bullet. The past does not have to be completely smooth. Add the dates and mix some more. If the mix is too dry and crumbly or not sweet enough you can add some more dates (it depends so much on what kind of dates you use). Put the paste in a bowl and add the cocoa powder. How much depends on how strong and dark you want them to be. Add a teaspoon or two of the coconut oil and some coconut flakes. I sometimes add some popped amaranth too, and vanilla powder. Roll into balls and roll the balls in coconut flakes, put in the fridge for some hours before eating.



Last but not least; berry ice cream! By mixing frozen berries with a very ripe banana you get a super creamy ice cream. I use about half a bag (100g) of frozen berries for one banana and blend with a hand mixer. Super easy, very good!


You can also spice the ice cream up with some cashew cream (cashews mixed with some water and a pear, 2dl cashews for one small pear) and cocoa nibs on top.

Obviously this was only the top five. We could count up twenty too . And beyond...

PINEAPPLE PARADISE, BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING

Flowers, sequined and fringe-y stuff coming up!
As I apparently sometiems seem to believe I am made of nothing but time, free such, I have been fixing up a new number to do at the Kokomo Burleski club which is tomorrow! On Friday in other words.

See you there if you are in the mood for some tikilicious action and burlesque!

On another note Friday is also Black Friday which we do not have over here but those of us hanging out on ze interwebs still know what it means; discounts online. For those of you who still don't have enought stuff I though I'd let you in on a couple of sales from my affiliates that you might want to use; (or at least I hope so; as you know these are not sponsored ads but if someone shops I get a penny or two. Mostly just 'a' :)

   

Shabby Apple has 20% off absolutely everything from the 23rd to the 30th with the code JOYFULSEASON

And Lime Crime, which has really great cruelty free make up that I always use for shows, offers 30% off for Friday and 25%off for the rest of the weekend and on Cyber Monday. Plus, they launch a new velvet lip stick and eye glitters on Friday. You can get the discount code from LC's Facebook tomorrow!

Also, ModCloth is starting their Season sale with a lot off a lot.

You can click the images to get to the sites.

Last I'll mention Trashy Diva, which sadly is not a affiliate of mine but I thought it was worth mentioning anyway, has 30% off everything too. Swoon.

And this week's drawing over at my FB page for a set of organic skin care will be up and running tonigth!

FROM THE INSPIRATION PARTY

Last week I went to the launch party of Indiedays Inspiration.  The dresscode was 'inspiration' and I dressed, well, inspired by myself. Hehe. I figured most would be in black so myself I decided to colour it up a bit. But not going too vintage-y. Here's a pic of me and my friend Mia:

The skirt is the one I made myself at the end of summer to fit my post-pregnancy belly. Now it needs the belt to stay put. Hehe again.

I had milk stored in the fridge for Dag so I thought I could actually part and go almost bananans on the champagne.  I however noticed I was at home at the same I used to part for town back in the days. A few years but a whole lifetime away. But then again, that's the way is it. And should be.

FINTAGE 2013

Just a quick note to let you know that the winner of the vintageque calendar is Magda from Poland!

For the rest of you craving some nostalgia for your walls you can order the calendar via etsy.

Photo via Fintage.

COWBOY

My little Sunday morning cowboy is drooling on his striped horse.
Here's some cowboy music to go along.

AHAI GIVEAWAY

Do you know what time it is?

Yup, it's give-away time!

Ahai shopping is offering one of you the chance to win items from their store for up to 30$, which actually gets you pretty much. There are lots of mod-and boho style dresses to choose from, as well as  other things such as shoes, jackets etc.

In order to participate you have to like Ahai shopping on Facebook (which gives you a sitewide, constant 3% off if you want to register for an account) and then leave me a comment on this post letting me know which items(s) you would like to receive if you win!
Visit the store here to choose your favorites.
FollowAhai on Pinterest here for inspiration photos and product pics.
The giveaway is  open internationally of course; anyone is free to enter.

The winner will be drawn randomly, so leave me only one comment please, and make sure you are reachable to me trough that comment.

If you share this giveaway on Facebook or on your blog etc you get another entry as usual.

The giveaway will run until November 30 and the winner announced on 1st December.
Good luck and happy browsing :)

PS. You still have time tomorrow to enter my Fintage calendar drawing and this week's Facebook giveaway, which is for a set of Lips Bling lip bling :) Something I've never tried myself but could be pretty fun for parties, photo shoots or so.

So many giveaways. It's almost like Christmas isn't it?
Which it soon is by the way.

ONE SCARF, ONE BERET, FIVE MINUTES, SIX LOOKS

(Here's the baby as part of the outfit once again as it needed a dash of colour. You gotta do what you gotta do.)

Yesterday I kept a lecture on vintage inspired styles and styling. My thesis being, as you may know from here, that you can do very much with very little; manage to add a flair of certain styles or eras wearing pretty much anything as long as you acessorize it right; it is how you wear it and what you wear it with. Do note that dressing inspired by something is not the same thing as dressing up to something; it is not re-creating an outfit form a certain era, just playing with the vibes from it.

I planned to demonstrate this subtly during my talk by changing a few details in my outfit, which I wanted to be rather neutral, both retro and timeless, for it to work. But as I went on babbling I kind of forgot to do it properly and on time.

So I will go for it here instead - sort of 20'ish onwards! Five minutes, five more looks:

There you have it, easy as whoah!

The blouse and skirt are both from Tara Starlet. I folded the waist band down in half as it rises too high to look good on me.

And no, my child is not really in the pic just to balance out the soft shades with his red suit. But it sounded like a more fun and less shouty of a reason didn't it?

DRESS REVIVAL

A good thing about going trough old blog posts is that you can re-dioscover items in your wardrobe that you had forgot about. At least in mine, as I tend to go for items periodically. And some items at the bottom of my drawers in the bed room manage to stay pretty well hidden. Also, making my way to the closet / mini storage room in the study (which has sort of become the place where the rest of my belonings go to die.) past all the paper work and burledsque bags and amost-there scene costumes is a task I have been avoiding. Stuff are hidden and forgotten in there. (Or, rather, I've been avoiding the task to clean the mess in front of the closet but I guess I will just be forced to do so, well, soon. Ish.)

But today as I browsed back I was reminded of some pieces and I went for an exact remake of a combo I wore three and a half years ago the last time.

Dag got to replace Lulu in the pictures though. And the fringe is faux, as you know. Updated version.

Oh, oh, and I have to add, and the beret is also another, a new one. Which is sort of a big thing in some dimension somewhere as the original one had been with me for half of my life. Do you have any accessory or other wearable item you've had for a very very long time?

I have lots of outfits I do in the same way several times and as many combinations I've only wore once. This one is not that special per se but I think I haven't even worn this dress since I did the post above, in ehrm, 2009...

Maybe that would be a sign to get rid of this dress but I had kept it with the thought it'd be good as a maternity dress.

I did not use it when I was pregnant. 

I think I forgot that I had thought of it or something. Well whatevs. Next time around then.

But browsing trough again, turns out I have worn the dress once since spring 2009, here, the whole shabadang in 2010. Well yey! And another yey! Because that just gave me a "new" jacket too; I had forgotten about the one in the picture. (The first world club cheers.)

So I made my way trough the study of horrors and pluck out the jacket - perfect for the cold nasty season.

Thank you, me.

Btw here's how the posing continued. Someone needs more attention than the blog and the camera.

Of course.

But. Why was I going trough old posts?
I do that sometimes, the blog works sort of as a diary for me. This time however it was to pick out pictures for a lecture on vintage inspired style and styling I am holding tonight at Arbis. At 18:05 in the library, if interested.