SUVI-VINTAGE / FABRIC & VECTOR

This year's poster I did for Fintage's summer-vintage-happening Suvi Vintage.
The event takes place the last weekend of June in Tampere.

I like to use mixed media and blend in patterns that look pasted on. I did that a lot just for fun too back when I (for some strange reason I can not figure out) had the time to do outfit drawings. Perhaps because I did not have a child then. Or was dependent on a businesses of my own).

I scan or take photos of materials and textures; here I took photos of a few of my dresses, a jacket and and Eddi's shirts.

Here is a photo of my Marimekko dress for example.


Which I then coloured blue.


And turned into a skirt in a row of many!

SPECTAC-O-RAMA!

People in and around or coming to Helsinki! Book your calendars for November 8  & 29 as our spectacular spectacle of glitter and dance and burlesque and live rock n'roll will take place then at Allotria Saturday night club:

We're doing another collaboration show with cabaret loving rockabilly band Sweet Jeena & Her Sweethearts this fall, a two-hour revue of crazy and fabulous; Spectac-O-Rama. On stage also queerly fab Mia Li Moon and our highly popular performing student troupe The Shangri-La Showgiris!
You can check the Facebook event for more info, we'll update it all fall: Spectacorama on Facebook.

The poster is made by me, inspired by and old Vegas travel ad.

And as we are on it with the BurlyQ, it's time to end and announce the Paljettipommi-zine giveaway:
Total randomness landed on commenter no9, Talvikettu, who'll receive an email from me soon!

SUVI VINTAGE WEEKEND POSTER

This year's poster I made for the Suvi-Vintage event.
The theme is the 1930's and holidays so I put in some giant 30's pants.

COTTON CANDY AND SALTY LIQUORICE

It's been forever sine I've done or posted any spotted & drawn outfits like I used to at the beginning of this blog, but some time ago I saw a girl in the tram in pink and black who had clearly thought her thing trough, so I thought I'd draw it. She had a pale and kind of dirty pink in her brown hair that somehow looked natural although it of course wasn't, (I've always had a thing for pastels in hair and even though I'll most likely stay au naturel or will at most try some organic herbal colour, I still haven't totally let go of the thought that one day I might go for it myself...) wearing a pink wool jacket and was pairing it all with one of those deliciously shiny Ted Baker shopper bags. Neat!

RED BLUE BLACK BEIGE AND SNOW

Winter outfit, outdoors mode.
This plaid jacket
This wool skirt
And a pair of red boots you are yet to see.

THE SEVENTH YEAR

2014. Normally I'd go "we're so living in the future" , but this time it's more like "mah, 2014, whatever, been there already". Partly because I've had so many things scheduled for this new year since way back already and  partly since I feel half of what I read in the papers are prognoses and plans for a few years ahead anyway. But mostly since I've been so busy this fall I didn't really notice how fast it went nor have the time to do the usual closure thoughts for the year that was.

As you know I don't make any resolutions, although I've tried it with improvements. Three-four year in a row, the same things to improve, and still no change. I find myself unbelievable! (Although this year I am on in it with the bookkeeping right now, instead of panicking the night before it's due to hand over...)

So. Now it's 2014 and that makes this my seventh year of blogging - that's such a long time already!
My blog itself gets one year older around the same time that I do, in October, and the previous years I've reflected on that during this days.  But this year it's suddenly January already! My first blog post ever was about my 26th birthday. (I remember where we went and what I wore trough that but can't recall what I actually did :) That was back when I only posted with drawings; I had this idea of remaining incognito. Well, that was indeed then and now is now.  My 32nd birthday was, apart from the moments travelling and on stage, spent in a very crowded backstage among feathers glitter and suitcases at the Stockholm Burlesque Festival.  So in the spirit of my very first post, I made a similar drawing of that occasion.

Blogging has changed and developed trough the years, not just for me, as of course one develops as a blogger all the time - hopefully - but also in general. I've see that people also read blogs in a different manners than before. I know some readers have been here almost since day one which is pretty fascinating! I have a few blogs I've followed for almost a decade too. Some blogs come and others go, and I've noticed I seldom keep up with one for more than a few years - they either repeat themselves too much or then never seem to find their own flow, while there are a few that balance there on the golden path in between. Nowadays I hardly ever have the time to keep up with any blogs at all though.

As you've noticed I've had a lot of background ads on the blog the past year, which is part of my collaboration with Indiedays Inspiration. I know their color schemes sometimes lowers the over-all aesthetics of my blog, but it has become rather inevitable to have them there. As each blog post takes up at least a couple of hours time the income they can give me is welcome, especially now since I'm self employed.

I've said it before, that blogs are such a media that mostly only exists on their front page, and have the rest, apart from the well-linked and well-pinned posts, easily vanish into the abysses of the internet (to sometimes pop up in the most weird of google searches). So I've usually had my 'browse the year back-giveaway', to let some air into the archives. But this year I'll skip it. I'll try to come up with something else fun in the near future instead!

A HEART-SHAPED HAT

I've been making some illustrations for Frollein von Sofa to appear on her new site soon.
Here's a snippet of one.
Toodeli-do.

STUFF I REALLY LIKE BUT WOULD NOT NECESSARILY GO FOR MYSELF

Pt.2

Knee-high lace up boots. Preferably in colored suede.
I actually wished for red ones like this in a post many many years ago.
But if I had a pair I would most likely never wear them. I just like the thought of such. But boots like this requires a hem that stops at the knee or above and I want my hems to go over my knees.

Which takes us to the following;




Short striped dresses.
I never feel comfortable in short dresses though. Or, it depends a bit on the cut, but anything a little more slim does not work for me.  It's because I picture my legs like a pair of chicken legs. I mean, not the ones that stick out form beneath the feathers of the birdie, but the ones you eat; the way they look when you grill them. Broiler.
Many maternity dresses are pretty short, and I get it; it's to avoid the 'tent-look'.  But ehrm, about 75% of my pregnancy kilos have missed the belly and settled on my hip and thighs (thanks!), and although I still think pregnancy is more forgiving -as focus is on the belly and the rest is just OK -I'll still just stick to liking short dresses instead of actually wearing them.


Huge hats.
Or, I do have a huge sun hat like this, as you may remember. But I only wear it for, eh, sunny situtations. Not on town. But I still like the look of it.


And of course, all of the above togheter!

SOME MINOR WORDS OF WISDOM

Because you know, a small little set of of lovehandles is just fore the better.
More to love baby!



And now it's time for me to take a short break from everything; work like hell for a couple of days and also try to figure some things out. I'll be back soon with this promised tutorial and I might get on with some tags I've received too. Have fun until then ok!

ALOHA

Some nights ago I put a lot of flowers in my hair took a quick trip to the pacific, splashing waves and swinging palm trees.


I didn't have to go that far though- me and most of the other Itty Bitties went to a Hawaian themed Dr.Sketchys with flowers and floral shirts, a hula dancer and the right tunes!



I did some drawings. They pretty much all ended up looking the same.

Interested in Dr.Sketchy evenings but there's none near you? Then you can just start your own! ... but you do need to contact the founder Molly Crapabble first, via Dr.Sketchy's.

Next week I might post a short tutorial about how I did this hair...


..but first I'll go catch some sun and snow in Lapland for a few days!
Have a great weekend :)

MINT FUDGE AND COTTON CANDY

While waiting for the metro I saw a girl who had challenged the soggy snow by wearing lace socks in her oxford heels togeher with a pastel mintgreen wool jacket. It was candy and springtime all the way so Yey I say!

WE'VE HIT ONE YEAR NOW!

The knitted cake is a b-day present form K via Etsy.

The Freelancer's Fashionblog is now one year old and I am also officially one year older on paper (or well, I've actually been that for a couple of days now but anyway)!

A lot of things have happened during the past year; I actually freelance a lot less now than then since I got a promotion and raise at this one place I'm empoyed at, I have one ring less on my finger but a tattoo that says Forgive me, I moved to the smallest but perhaps nicest flat I've ever lived in and my wardrobe constantly kept growing a bit bigger.

Most of you started reading my blog during spring, so then you might not know that this blog was just about drawings in the beginning. I remained rather incognito for almost half a year before actually posting any pictures of me.

A little flashback on some drawings (read:outfits...)





And, since 'm writing blog-stuff here I'd like to thank The Evil Dressmaker for giving me the Briliant premio and Miss Urbanita and Alice's White Rabbit for giving me the "I love you blog" award!

Merci aussi à Oriane qui m'a donné le prix de la gentilesse!



I'm going to be a total ****-head (you can choose whatever four letters you like there) and not pass these on to anyone specific since I feel a bit of an inflation coming on here soon; I've be posting and linking these a lot lately...

However, I do appreciate the appreciation given to me, so thank you all.

INA IN GREEN

Spring is finally here! And one does not only notice it because of the wamer weather - people also start putting noticeably more effort in their dressing. My friend Ina was wearing all green (well ,exept for her grey boots) the other day. Very spring inspired indeed.

WEEKENDS AS THEY SHOUDL BE

I had a really nice weekend, we did lots of nice stuff (and in other words: spent a lot of money). So this week will be all about working and eating noodles and veggie soup at home.

J is about to start on a new ship and that includes a new haircut as well. On friday I took him to this one retro barber shop with a great reputation and his locks went from 1969 to 61 - he came out with a nice mod cut. Then we went for dinner at a hip place. It was quite early with just a few people dining, and suddenly we heard someone shouting "fucking fuck!!!" from the kitchen. Everyone in the room heard it but it was more funny than embarrassing and whatever the chef had fucked up back there it wasn't at least my food since it tasted great.

Saturday we went bowling, to the tattoo convention (which was crap but I got shot for my favorite tattoo magazine in their studio backstage and that was nice), then eating (again)and then out. Fun fun fun. On Sunday we went for Nepalese and then (finally) to see Sweeney Todd (surprisingly all the singing didn't bother me as much as I had expected).

J left for Newcastle to go to one course that's required before he joins the new ship. And I'm going to work and work out and try not to go see if there are any new goodies in the secondhand store close to me and not to go check out this one new fifties shop that has just opened (and that has wonderful retro underwear....)

Well, this is what we were wearing in the weekend (when J sees this he's going to thin that I'm the silliest person in the world drawing both of us but hey, this blog is mostly about clothes and he looked great so here we go:)

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.

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.

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.