THE TURNED-AROUND DRESS

I made myself a new dress!

A sixties styled A-line dress from a mint green pepita-patterned fabric I bought last (or might even be the year before that) and had moved so far down on the want to-section of one of my to-do lists I had basically forgotten about it.

I have never sewn with, or properly learned to take advantage of patterns but make them up myself as I go along. Sewing for myself for almost twenty years I have learnt a lot along the way, and now plan more before cutting, thus mainly have to make the seams once (as in opposite to before, when I'd often make the piece a little bigger to be on the safe side, and then sew the seams smaller a couple of times over and over..). It's been a lot of trial and error during the years, and nowadays there's also the internet to consult when in doubt. So the clothing I make these days even look neat on the inside! Win.

I had a mint green decorative metal zipper that I had intended to put in the front of the dress, and was thinking to perhaps add a collar to it.

But then I changed my plans halfway trough, switched some darts and ended up making the back the front instead!

Also, I have to add, the mannequin was very much worth the investment, especially also when it come to (stage-)costume making. I still do the final try-ons and adjustments on myself, as the doll still lacks breast and behind even though the measurements are the same,  the clothes still looks a bit different on the body. So if you like to sew even a little bit I really recommend getting a mannequin to work with/on!

The zipper got to look pretty on the back of the dress instead.

And after some thinking back-and-forth I decided to go for the version with the collar.

Spot the black cat.

My shoes are the Daisy shoes by Frollein von Sofa. She really has so pretty shoes, and they are vegan and comfy as well, so do check them out!

As a bonus; every time I take outfit photos a few of them look like this; Dag absolutely has to pose in them himself. He is very proud of his outfit as well - it is a constant outfit nowadays; he does not only dress up as a red ninja, he IS one. I had to go and get a few pairs of red sweatpants to him as herefuses to wear anything else, and he has a few of these red Ninjago t-shirts... He also asks to get the scars painted on every day.

I have a bunch of other fabrics waiting to turn into dresses and tops and skirts. Sewing is fun! I just rarely have the tie to do so anhymore (nor wear the clothes) but I guess it's kind of just like a hobby...

MINT GREEN, WELL OF COURSE

Eddi gave me a new jacket for my birthday. 

The clothes for the colder season mainly tend to be a dark, grey or beige colour - so are most of mine - so it's nice to break the pattern.

(Although I did think about having a new coat when I still have old ones that are wearable. It is some sort of old thing, , that still spooks around in my head. Considering that it is rather cold here half of the year, and that your coat is the one item what you wear most of the year, it is not perhaps that strange to have two or three. When again few people think twice about getting a new summer dress, which you with luck can wear a quarter of the year at most...)

PASTEL AND PEACHY

Hello! I am in Berlin but last weekend we were at my sisters wedding!
It was warm and sunny  and I was wearing mint green. Could it get any better than that? Perhaps, because my hair was also pastel peach!* (Pastels can make a lot of things better. And you know I like competing with the cake on weddings, pastell-y and fluffy.)

My shoes are Minna Parikka, the purse vintage and the cherry blossom wrap dress is from PriscillaTokyo on Etsy, made of Japanese vintage fabric. Anastasia made me the hair flower by hand a few years back.

*) Was, well, is, still. A powdery peach.

SOFT GREY & MINT GREEN

  Mint green & soft grey in a re-discovered old sweater. I got it in Milan when I was there performing and also pregnant with Dag.  (That's almost three years ago!! Time flies.)

On yet another quest for all that much coveted space, I decided to clean out my closet and give away anything I haven't used that much and this mint green sweater  -which, even though it is the colour it is has been strangely hard to wear- was about to go, until I noticed it did indeed go rather well with my big grey skirt. So it got to stay.

I like big skirts in winter because if needed you can hide any warm layers underneath.

And here I am in said sweater and big skirt hanging out by my fridge.

A PRODUCTIVE RAINY DAY

The other day when it was pouring down outside I finally got around making use of some fabrics I had had waiting around for a while.

I made a teal blu combo of a stretchy poly-blend; a skirt with pleats.

And a top with small cap sleeves and a collar. (I think I will mostly wear them separately though.)

The skirt was rather easy to make per se; I made four large pleats and sew one seam + zipper in the back. It would have looked good also without the waistband, but I put one in anyway.

I also managed to Finnish off this project that I had started some weeks earlier;  a mint green (! Yey.) combo. With a stretchy skirt (pull-on, with an elastic in the waist, no zipper) and a matching top.

With an attachable peter pan collar.

That can be reversed!

Now it'd be great if I also got around wearing these... The weather is finally getting warm and sunny again so I even stand a chance. But otherwise I feel like I never have anything to wear these days, and wonder when the hell I will be able to wear everything I already have ( file as first world problem, I know...). The answer is: when I no longer have small children.

(And global warming kicks in and it's plus 20C here all year round...)

SWOON AND THEN A LITTLE MORE

One of those I'm-dying-a-little-bit-just-by-lookin-at-it-from-the-corner-of-my-eye dresses.
If we'd just manage to throw that wedding party we've planned for the rest of our friends and family that were not with us in Vegas (which is, most of them) I would have the perfect reason...

(1950's vintage dress from Etsy/Dear Golden.)

MINT GREENS (OR CLOSE ENOUGH)

That mint green itch of mine is back.
Not that it ever really has been gone either. Sea foam or pistachio works for me as well.

As usual at this time of year it struck me, the need of a slight  renewal. Both when it comes to cleaning out the closet(s) and re-arranging at home, and, of course, the irrational urge of putting new stuff in. That includes me dreaming of new dresses (and strongly believing that the upcoming summer will very long and warm and sunny and full of moments to strut around with those dresses on).  I have luckily come to the point in my life where I've learned not to click anything home at 3 in the night -that's when I usually do my inter netting nowadays - but wait until the morning or a day or two before I do so, which often means I have the time to grasp my breadth and remember I can live without whatever it was I thought I just had to get. Especially this year, as I decided  - well kind of, let's not set any limits her quite yet - not to get anything new for summer and instead use my money for paying for more work outs with my personal trainer (which I have been doing this winter; it's rather expensive but I have to be honest, it's awesome working out like crazy again, more worth than any Trashy diva dress in the world!  Or well, almost. ) So any dress browsing I might indulge myself in now would be totally useless. But looking won't hurt,  right?

And then of course another thing struck me, which is -and how is this even possible : I don't own one single mint green dress!  Very little mint green anything as a matter of fact. Perhaps my butt muscles will forgive me if they get one or two hours less of work and can instead have something nice and mint green draped around them, hmm?

The shorts are from Vivien of Holloway
The dresses with a grey background are from Etsy/ Fleet Collection
Light turquoise dress with embellishment from Trashy Diva
Dresses in the lower left corner from old fav and affiliate ModCloth
Sweetheart top from Etsy/Contrariety Rose

THE WALLET

I finally got myself a new wallet! Or, matinee purse as this one is called.  I've been meaning to get a new one forever as the one I had until now was literally falling apart. But it was rather hard to find one that was both big enough and pretty.  I guess I don't have to write this out but in case there's something going on with somebody's monitor out there I'll do it anyway: it's  MINT GREEN! Hallelujah.

The wallet-purse-which-ever-you-prefer is by Ted Baker. (In case you were wondering I bought mine old school over the counter at Stockman; they carry a lot of TB bags and accessories and I have a soft spot for most of them. I haven't found the exact same one online, but very similar styles though.)

WHY NOT

I never really thought of wearing bright red with mint green but then again, why not! And well, mint green - you know. No problems, ever.



I bought the knitted striped shirt when I was very pregnant (as some may even remember) on sale for five euros thinking it'd be alright to let it stretch all out but it didn't; so it's still around. The pencil skirt I got at the beginning of pregnancy (as you might also recall) and wore to up about six months. Probably the best thing I've ever bought; super reduced to only ten euros, a great thick stretchy material and very comfy. And it didn't stretch out either. Yey.

Most of my bags tend to be vintage but this is new...I guess there is no doubts over why I bought it...
It also happens to go perfectly along with my iphone cover. First world happiness. Yey again.

TIKI OCTOBER

I popped by the re-launch of Kokomo tonight and all the Tiki drinks were free. Free tiki drinks! I could however not enjoy myself any complimentary tropical alcoholic beverages as I was also doing a show. You can't always have everything I guess. Not even when it comes to tiki drinks (damn it).

This is the autumn version of dressing "tropical"; if it's too cold for bare legs or very thin tights it's best just to add a big splash of colour all over.

The dress is Trashy Diva, the necklace a leftover from my hippiedays I bought the summer I was in Bali and yes, you must have noticed, the bag matches my fridge which means it is m i n t  g r e e n.
(There's lots of mint green in the shops right now. Almost too much. It was hard to believe it would ever come to this.)


Oh, and a little PS. here at the end;
my weekly give away at my blog's  FB page this week -ending Sunday as usual- is for a set of eco false lashes, with ecologic-and vegan friendly adhesive! 5 cent per contester goes to charity (to organizations in the US.) Enter via my site or straight trough here: http://bit.ly/PonDjs

BLUE, BLACK AND MINT GREEN

Well you pretty much have it there in the headline already.

The maternity dress is new, custom made for me by Senja at Belle Modeste, but we can look more at the dress later. I should be able to wear it without that big ball in front of me too.

And hey, finally, dry and warm enough for thin stockings and pumps outside!
(A woman on the street asked me how I can wear heels although heavily pregnant. My answer is: easily - and well thank you very much now mind your own f'ing business. Didn't say that last part though. But, these low-to mid steady heels are actually much more comfier for me than flat ballerinas. In case any of you were wondering too. Tudeliduu!)

((Oh, and in case you were wondering about the rest; the bag and jacket are vintage, scarf an old H&M one, shoes Vagabond and turban Manoush. It recently joined my wardrobe; a very belated Christmas gift from my friend K :) But you knew most of those from before already. The shoe story at least, right? ))

BEDSIDE, ON WHEELS

 I've changed those small vintage side tables we had as night tables to trollies instead.

Although the tables looked nice, they  didn't have a lot of surface and instead of looking like they should (like this: here, and here -yes, some of hte books are the same. But I read others inbetween instead!)...

...they had been a mess lately. In fact, it's been quite messy at everywhere home the whole winter as I have had no extra time for anything and also have been rather tired, so anything that will get me more organized and leave me more floor space is welcome.

Now I have three levels for my things to store on less floor space than before! Hopefully they'll keep in order... As the trolley is easily moveable I can now use the drawers under the bed with less effort than before.

I got Eddi one too. I originally intended the trollies for our kitchen and for the countryhouse kitchen but then it struck me they had a more important task to fill. (The cat lamp does not really sit well on the trolley, but I have other plans for it already. For the baby. Somewhere.)

The metallic trolley (which btw is MINTGREEN (whoah!, in case you did not notice :) is from ikea. I was stalking their site every day after spotting it in a interior magazine, until I saw they were available in the store and then rushed over. I had started seeing the trolley in lots of interior blogs the days before and had to hurry before those bitches went and bought up my trollies!

I am now on a quest to organize and tidy a lot in the house before the baby comes. One thing is to make more space in the bedroom, to fit the baby bed... I will thus exchange the floor lamp to a vintage lamp that will hang from the wall above the bed; we have the lamp already waiting to be brought into town from the country house.  But more on that later.

MINT AND CHOCOLATE, THE EASTER EGG

 You know I have this thing where I just can't help associating certain shades or pieces of clothing with candy? Today: mint and chocolate. Or, marzipan and chocolate. (Mmm, marzipan... and mmmm, chocolate...) I'm like one big Easter egg!

 Or, if not, at least I do have a little Easter egg of my own here in front of me!

And here we are in the third trimester already!
(For the moment I actually have very few things or almost nothing to wear; I can't fit in to any of my regular clothing and I have only only bought a few "mommy"pieces so far - and those all are better for a bit warmer weather (dresses of course, you know me...), sigh.  And yes, I'm wearing leisure pants.)

STUFF I REALLY LIKE BUT WOULD NOT NECESSARILY GO FOR MYSELF

Part 1: Pastel lips

I'm pretty sure I couldn't pull it off - or well, I even might, just don't want to - but I still find pastel coloured lipsticks rather delicious! The thing however is that whenever I wear another colour than any shade of red I at some point start regretting I did not wear plain red instead of pink, coral or whatever. Talk about a habit. And no, I really couldn't picture myself in mint green lipstick but I really love the idea of it. Lime Crime has lots of crazy and yummy pastels. And yes, in mint green too! Love the idea.

(Here I have to add hat when I was little mint green was the one colour I could not stand. Maybe because it was everywhere in the eighties. Things change :)

MINT GREEN & MILK SHAKE

I've had a pretty rough week at work (and it ain't over yet, sight); it's high season for pretty much everything you can stuff into a ship so it's all burning hot asphalt, dirt, trucks and cars for me. And sweat. it makes me tired and in the mood to constantly treat myself with something (mostly ice cream).

Coming home after work I arrived at the same time as Eddi and we chatted a bit in the front of our building with the elderly lady form downstairs, about stuff like birds and the weather. And then I could see a FedEx car in the corner of my eye far aways, driving on the big road. And I though 'mmmm, FedEx, someone's getting something nice delivered soon' and in the same time it struck me that it actually might be me. Hell yes! The car turned down our road and at that point I had already guessed what it might be and yes, it turned into our parking lot and now I knew it was for me (mini Christmas, yey! - my bird conversation was a bit distracted by now) as hell no other way someone else in our building orders stuff form the internet. And goddamit there it was, my brand new mint green blender! (You know, In case you don't remember my fridge is mint green as well.)


I made us an ice cold milkshake right away.


Oh yes! Bought form the UK it needs a plug adapter but it's a pretty small piece so it doesn't matter.


We had it on the balcony, where it's like +50 right now.


Husband, berries & ice cream ♥

PARADISE

I've played this song here before and now I'll play it again; Badding's Paratiisi is a little bit like rautalanka in the sense that you can never play it enough. It's about a summer's day, sort of.



This time perhaps played to celebrate that today it finally felt like spring!
Or that I just saved 250 euros buy NOT buying that Kitchen Aid blender I went out to get. (It actually was ugly now that I saw it the second time.) But that means poor little tired-from-Saturday-night me will be without a Sunday smoothie.

Badding, who drank himself to death in the late eigthies, wasn't exactly a pretty boy and did not elad a happy life, but he sure could sing and make music Finns like. Valot, as you've heard some Sundays ago is also one of Badding's.

psst! If you have a good clue on a nice blender that looks good hand'em over! Warings mint green one would be nice but I have a small creepy feeling it won't work over here (damn you US and youd different power system!) and pulling a cat-lamp won't work in order to get smoothies... Thinking of a Kenwood I know one can get in cream colour, but seems to be hard to find over here as other people obviously only want them in black red or white...

BLACK ON BLACK, BUT -

- with some springy vibes underneath!

It might be minus a fucking lot right now, but the sun does warm during the day; everybody is determined that this is the last cold before spring sets in. We might get let down and disappointed on that one, but I did a little boost however and added some spring vibes to the otherwise over all black. (As seen before, I always associate spring with mint green and coral, mostly.)

And yes, I wear skirts in minus twenty C, as I have my tips and my tricks. It's the anatomy of dressing when really cold put into action!

SOME RANDOM THINGS I BOUGHT MYSELF WHILE CHRISTMAS GIFT SHOPPING FOR OTHERS

I'm ill at home and have been staring at that shelf for most of the day now. A japanese silk-covered jar I don't know what to put in yet, a bon bonier I have cotton pads in and mint green shades. Now it does not feel like the most up-to-date thing to do to buy sunglasses in December when the day is only 5 hours and 53 minutes long. But we are on the winning side however, going towards this, so one could say I was just being positive, looking forward. And they are mint green for heavens sake!

TO BE OR NOT TO BE, OR TO HASBEENS?

First I'm going to tell you something and then I'm going to ask you something.

The telling: I'm completely fucked in the head.

To start with I blame the internet, my paypal account and then a bunch of other facts, phenomenons and whatever. The thing is, I just can't stop wanting stuff, not only believing but knowing I need it/that/those/whatever, trying to make my wardrobe complete; perfect for any occasion. You know, one part of life such as it is seen upon nowadays is a constant search for the perfect something - the perfect job, the perfect home, the perfect partner, the perfect hand bag, perfect black skirt, foundation, mascara, every day shoes, life you name it... The longing for all things perfect and then even a little more prefect is something of a challenge we create upon ourselves but also something being fed to us all the time in magazines and commercials.

Well, enough about blaming society for my materialistic cravings as the thing here was about me and my f:d up head, plus, for the moment I actually have the perfect home-in-the-making and a pretty perfect partner (plus perfect lashes done so skip the mascara and I've given up on the black skirt). But, as it seems, not the perfect easy going shoes for summer. As that is clearly something everyone needs. And one fine day when I should have been out in the park enjoying the sunshine but instead sat down by the wonderful never-ending world of the internet I found the perfect ones:

Swedish Hasbeens candy coloured sky high sandals. That at least in my book look comfy enough for the so called every day wear.

But but but. I have a whole box of -yet-to -unpack-and-nowhere-to-put-after-that-shoes (not sandals though! Very few such!) at home. (Not to mention clothes, still a couple of suitcases in waiting. And strangely though, I think I have less and less to wear day by day. How can it be?)

Well anyway, I may be fucked in the head but the sandals are still pretty sweet aren't they? And one pair more wouldn't hurt. Plus my comfy everyday summer shoes so far have been a pair of red H&M peeptoes, well serving their 19 euros since 2006, now falling apart. I mean, these even come in mint green! (Even though I do think one pair of mint green shoes are enough, believe it or not. Might go for pink or natural-shaded ones instead).


Hmmm.

So, now over to the questions: since the apparently much hyped Swedish Hasbeens still are a little bit on the more expensive side I'd really like to know if they are comfortable. That would pretty much be the whoel point of purchasing. I sort of think that if you pay more than 150 euros for a pair of shoes comfot better come with the price - that works for Minna Parikka shoes at least, but you can never be sure.(And no, lower heels are out of the question. I don't think the sky high ones look that high anyway.)
So any experiences on the sky high ones?
Or hasbeens in general?

And does anybody know about the sizing? I read they are rather small but their size chart seems to be pretty regular, almost bit on the bigger side. I've been measuring my feet over and over here at work, even standing on a ruler and the result indicates I should go for a 36 but that would be one size smaller than my normal one and I can't really trust that.

Well over and out, let's see if I end up with a pair or if I find something else more necessary and interesting before I click Buy.

FINALLY!

La la la la lallalla!