IN TRENDI

I have caught the flue and might give people the impression that I'm related to Rudolph and I still have a bunch of work to do so I'm mostly running around all incognito in my black uniform (no sneakers though, we have snow here so it's all winter boots now!)

So, I'll continue to rely on others to supply me with nicer pics than the ones I'd be capable of taking right now...


Our burlesque group is part of a story about burlesque in Finland in this month's Trendi magazine, togheter with Sally Vanilla, Minna Parika and Kirsi Nisonen.
(Photo by Kaapo Kamu)

I was actually sick at the photo shoot but it went quite well anyway, except for that the hairstylist didn't show up when we were to be shot! I did panic for a while since I hadn't touched my hair after the shower, it was a mess, and I only had a few of my mandatory bobby pins in my purse. Luckily I can manage pretty good by myself and with some borrowed hairspray there was no damage done :)

My black and gold corset in the photo is made by Tyra Therman btw.

(and funny enough, the hairstylist did fix some very nice glamour hair to some of the others who were photographed later but their picture is shot in such a way that the hair doens't even show...)

UMMM...

I'm not usually not much for contests and stuff but if I find myself in one it would of course be nice to, well, win or something.

So if you find me nice and fabulous and stylish and all that why don't go on and put in a little vote for me in the Supermelons Best Real Style Contest?
Time's until December 19th!
Thanks in advance, heheh :)

EDIT : ...but in order to vote you have to register first. You'll get a membership to The Supermelon then, but they won't start sending you any emails or such though.

RED

Another coincidence, although this one is not that strange since chrsitmas seasong is sneaking upon us, and we were infact throwing a so called "Little Christmas" party with our music quiz team. (My feet are the ones with the most practical shoes for the snowy evening, eh).

So everyone was actually wearing black or red or black and red (but I actually broke the code a little bit by having my beige checked skirt on.)

Little Christmas parties are always quite hilarious. I pimped our tomteluvor a bit too.


And by the way, very now and the it's good to remember not to take onself too seriously :)
Have a great week!

VOLT MAGAZINE

Me and my Burlesque group are featured in Volt magazine togehter with Olivia Rouge today! I think the pics are great (sadly though one of our girls is missing since she couldn't attend the shoot), and now you also get to see a bit of the outfits I made for us.

SLIGHTLY PINK FOR A WHILE

Cardigan - H&M, Dress - Selfmade
Belt - Indiska, Shoes - Vintage

I went to the hairdesser the other day to fix my roots (I know, this comes as a real chock but I was actually not born platinum blonde :) and to get a slight tone of colour adjusted. Something got a bit wrong perhaps since my hair got an undertone of soft pink. But I catually like it! Sadly it will dissappear after wash or two...

SOME MORE OF THAT YES PLEASE!

Mission for today; visit Dear Martha!



Dear Martha, run by Josefin, is a delicious blog about crafting, baking and deily luxury. It is full of good looking recipies and decorative, pretty small things to do for your home or to perhaps make a rainy day a little bit more fun. I love looknig at things like that, it gives me a lot of ideas and makes me wish I had more of that luxurious free time! There are also some great links listed at Dear Martha, like one about Tiki cupcakes!

Today Joesfin has posted a little interwiev with me, where I also give a quick tip om how to alter a dress in a simple way.

HIDING IN BLACK

I don’t like leaving home - and seldom do - without being properly dressed and with my hair fixed. But sometimes when I’m really busy; have a lot of freelances jobs to work with and in the same time need to take care of errands around town, or if I have to go to work at strange hours I need to prioritize the comfort in my way of dressing. Even though I might feel like it, I still don’t want to go out looking like I’m about to fetch a pizza on a hangover Sunday afternoon in my pyjamas adn a hoodie. Instead I go for a rather classy and incognito look, which makes me feel a little bit like being in disguise or like I’ve managed to fool the rest of the world that I look good :)

What works for me are the following : I wear all black soft clothes, I put something on my head, I add som detail.

The past week I’ve been living in my black “uniform” ; wearing a pair of comfy velour leisure pants that look like a nice pair of black trousers (which I still don’t own btw) if and only when combined with my black sailor style jacket. I hide my messy hair with my beret or with a black scarf and do a quick make up - a more strong than pretty look; just two sleek and thick strokes of black eyeliner. (I’ve been doing those since I was fourteen so I can get them perfect in five seconds) And then I match the red stripe of my vintage sneakers (yes you read it right; sneakers!) with my mittens and give the whole thing a sailor-ish touch with my anchor bag (which fits things like my calendar, a lot of papers and so on).

In the end it’s actually the jacket that makes the whole thing work so I avoid having to take it of. Illusion ruined, I’m in my leisure wear underneath.

TRIXIES!

Trashy Diva is one of my favourite clohing lines, maybe even my absolute favourite one. Today I ordered one Trixie dress in each colour available, one for each one of us five girls in my burlesque group. I did actually order two dresses of one colour since I'm getting myself two Trixies!

So which two colours do you think I got for myself?

EDIT : I loved reading your guesses and I could have taken all coulurs but the ones I went for now was the red and the bright blue! Looking very much forward to receiving them :)

WELL YES, PLEASE!

I'm still busy and boring (for the ones who wishes me to update my blog more frequently. Otherwise I'm not boring at all :) Well, in such times it's nice when others do somtehing about you instead! Yes please. I'm featured in the Supermelon's latest Real Style section here.

The Supermelon is a lifestyle site with a wide range of articles and features about style, trends, art etc. Their Real Style interviews feature style/fashion bloggers of which some are propably known to you from before.


Then I'd like to thank always positive and nice Pratishtha for giving me the Brilliant Weblog Premio! Recently I haven't had time to read any blogs properly or to answer comments or post any myself, but I'll still pass it on this time; to some darling bloggers that read mine and always leave me nice responce (and that I think I have not 'awarded' before...) :
Sal, Andrea, Wendy B, Mrs.Munster, Pretty Pirate and Sueper.
These are only a few; of course there are a lot more of you out there! So thank you all. And have a great weekend!

OH ARMI

Oh Armi Armi, how I want you. How hard you would be to wear in the Finnish soggy winter, and how hard you'd be to pair with some parts of my wardrobe. But it doesn't matter. I'd still love you very much, if only you were mine.



I did buy a pair of shoes for last winter, but for some strange reason I chose them one size too big - theyr're totally wearable, but they look a bit, well, big (I'm slightly obsessed with having my feet look small). And my mother's suede boots that served first her and then me for ten years each are starting to slowly fall apart. Might need to get something new. You know, so my feet don't get wet and I sick and so on.

But my sister reminded me I could fly back and forth to NY for the price of those beauties. So it might be that -for the moment at least - they'll just remain on my 'dream on' list. *sigh*

But for the price of a ticket to, well, Copenhagen for example, I could get one of these. And that's already considerable:


Minna Parikka by Mantere. Not nearly as delicious, but not bad. And perhaps slightly more easy to wear in crappy weather and snow due to a thicker sole and lower heel. Considerable, indeed.

Buy them here for example (and check out other FInnish design at the same time too :)

(images from www.minnaparika.com and www.finnishdesignshop.com )

AND IT WAS GREAT

Yesterday's show ws a huge succes (resulting in none the less than three new photoshoots coming up!) -and it was a lot of fun too! Today I've spent the whole day inside doing absolutely nothing (I was already thinking of doing an outfit post in my pyjamas but let's not break any illusions here :)

While waiting for some more professional photos from the night and in a lack of any other topic due to my day spent only in bed and by the computer, I'll post a few snapshots I took before the evening started.

Cupcake girls and sailorettes, lots of make up, some champagne
and one pick-up piccolo boy.


Burlesque girls on the phone in a freezing backstage

A LITTLE LITTLE BIT NERVOUS

Tonight is the biiiig burlesque show. The organizers have understood to save the best for last, since our group will be the final performers. Perfect!

This is what I will be wearing tonight off stage :


(Dress - Trashy Diva, Shoes - Bianco)

And this is part of what I will be wearing on stage...




I made five of these sets plus skirts for us all and something for our male performer too! It will be hilarious I'm sure; and visually great since we have nice colours and great props on stage. There will certainly be some great photos taken of the night which I might post here later then...

I LIKE IT WHEN YOU LOVE ME

Thank You Thank You Thank You.

I have been given a lot of awards; one from the darling Alice, two awards (oh my :) from talented Sam and last but not least one from sweet Jess!

Thank you lovely ladies so much for the appreciation! I'm going to be a total bitch (but a very loveable such) and just keep these for myself without passing them on this time.

On top of it all I was given the biggest lollipop in the world by a colleague of mine! It's huge.

Shirt - S&M
Skirt - Selfmade
Grey tights - H&M,
Shoes - Sixtyseven You

I GOT A LITTLE PRINCESSY FOR A WHILE

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have a thing for the circus, but as with many other things; when you really start thiking about it, it's mostly the concept and images that surrounds it that fascinates me.


Think of the red curtain, the golden pollets on the shoulders, the smell of horses and sawdust, the sound of a barrel organ (and a little monkey clapping those cymbals! You know I love monkeys but oh well, let's not get in to those now).

Think of tattooed ladies portraid in old photos, siamese twin beauties, strong men, lions, ballerinas , sideshow freaks and snake women, romanticised versions of gypsies (ehrm, or to be more exact; Johnny Depp in The Man Who Cried. Think of some artwork of for example Johanna Öst, the Tv series Carnivale, Burton's Big Fish...

So when I went to see the circus I dressed up a little bit with a circus princess on my mind (even though I doubt anyone actually payed any attention to it) - as many bows as possible, a puffy skirt, a patterned hairband and switching my basic black makeup (happens very rarely) for some electric blue, gold and purple.



But to be honest, if I would have lived a hundred years ago and joined a circus (I would have done so even if there wouldn't have been a horseman-Depp hangin around :) I might not actually have been so much of a circus prima ballerina princess then. I think I would have been more of a tattooed acrobatic snake lady , the knife-thorwers partner or a musterious oh-so-good-at-faking it clairvoyant. Who knows.

AT THE CIRCUS

On Sunday I went with my sisters and my parents to see the circus.

I've always loved circuses! One of my earliest memories are from when my grandparents took me to Circus Finlandia when I was about three and I saw elephants there (they still had them around when I was a kid).

The past years I've seen more of the Cirque Noveau, like Les Oiseaux Fois, Circque du Soleil and Hurjaruuths Christmas Circuses but there is still something special about the traditional circuses, the ambiance of it. Even though I guess it's mostly the idea of the traditional circus that enchants me (If I would have lived in the 19th or early 20th century I would have ran away and joined an eastern European circus. Sometimes I still wonder if I did a bad choice of career and should've joined the circus anyway even though living in the 21st century. Since my limbs are practically made of rubber I could surely be good for some tricks... )

Cottoncandy and popcorn are a must when going to the circus:

Jacket - S&M, I added the quilted bow to make it "new" for this season
Hairband - thrifted, Scarf - Indiska, Skirt - Nümph
Tights - Nelly (around 3€ at S-market, bargain!)
"Hold Fast" tote bag - Sailor Jerry
Shoes - Minna Parikka

BOOM BADINBANG!

Have you ever visited bang bang industrie?
It's a french style site in blog format. They have a quite fun section with style profile features and the latest is on moi. How nice! You can check it out here to see some of my, heh, words of wisdom.

Or why not sign up to see if they'd perhaps make one of you too?

DOCTORS

Today I had to crawl out of bed and dig out my winterjacket to go see the doctor (have another appointement on Friday and I think I'll be well soon. There are few things some pills won't fix) and also to get to an appointemnt with a client. Sometimes when you feel really awful (and your hair is very dirty) it's a bit hard to dress up, especially in this case when I really had to look proper (since the customer was a bit sceptic about me at first, whatthehell, but they did love my job now. Of course. They always do in the end). I've also ben stuffing myself with food the past days so anything thight was out of the question because I really wanted to feel comfy.

An outfit both comfy and chic is not always the easiest to achieve but since I did pretty good in the end I thought I'd snap a picture of it once I was at it.


Except for that you can't really see any of it in this picture.

But now you can (yeah haha funny enough).


Blouse & Bolero - old H&M
Skirt - selfmade
Shoes - Minna Parikka
More about 'Doctors': I was browsing through some pianopieces I like on youtube and found this darling video (it's sort of a music video from the twenties :) I like it when the toys come alive). I used to play the classical piano for more than fifteen years in the Music Institute and this was one of my favourite pieces to play ( I really enjoy most of Debussy); Doctor Gradus Ad Parnassum. I prefer it played just slightly slower though.



(The suite has six pieces but only three were filmed. If you search "Children's Suite" and "Cortot" on youtube you can see the other two videos made.
Do it!)

PINS, NEEDLES AND A LOT OF LACE

25 meters of lace, 15 meters of silk ribbon, pins and needels and my cats thinking I'm about to play with them every time I lift a ribbon up to cut it... I've been sewing so much today I think my eyes have turned into sewing pins. It takes a long time to sew outfits for five girls, but when they are done, they will be great! So be sure to ocme see the burlesque show at Wäiski November 9th!

Thank you all for the getting better-wishes, but I'm still a bit ill I'm afraid. My head can't really take too much of the computer screen , which is bad since I do have some jobs waiting for me. And which also means lousy updating and no blog browsing either. Oh well, I'll be back in full glory eventually then.

Hope you'll all have a great week!

I WOULD PREFER THESE TO BE RED LEATHER GLOVES INSTEAD OF KNITTED MITTENS

Well... I bought he car, went on one date and managed to fix one bank paper issue, then I got really sick so the rest of the week has been spent under my bedcover listening to Classic FM. That would be rather comfy unless I wouldn't, well, feel ill and think of all the things that are now left undone...


Skirt - Miss60, Shoes - 67You, Jacket- Vintage
Bag - from a market in Thailand
Laptop sleeve - Golla

Before I got sick I still managed to pop by a press occasion at Golla, which is a Finnish brand growing quite a lot around the world. In their words, they combine fashion with portable electronics; making colourful bags with graphic prints for mp3 players, digital cameras and laptops. Now, I would personally just prefer the basic black leather sleeve for my mac but I know ther are many of you that wouldn't and then it's of course great to have options!

24/7 IS NOT ENOUGH

My cat is doing waaaay better now
(and the dress is Diesel, bolero HM if someone wants to know)

I'm a busy girl - I think I would need the day to be about 30 hours long, and the week to be three days longer.

Next week I' should be very productive :
-go to work every day
-clean the flat and organize my papers
-sew an outfit (burlesque)
-give an interwiev and have a photoshoot (more burlesque)
-do a couple of mystery shoppings
-buy an old car (getting too cold to bike soon, heh)
-do a boring layout of 60 pages (but it pays ok, need the money for the car)
-go on three dates and one talk (yup I'm a busy girl indeed)
-preferably do some savate, go to yoga class and maybe even pop by the gym

I wonder if it's an option to just stay in all week and watch Twin Peaks and Oz instead?

(...or to do some interneshopping? Maybe you've stumbled upon cocosa already? It's a luxury webshop that will offer special sales of various designer brands for members only. If you're interested there's more info on the site; sign up atcocosa.com using the membership code freelancers. The code is valid for ten days!)

A STYLISH COINCIDENCE

You know why you should always do the "what are you going to wear"-call to your friends before going out?

This is why.
As many things are often about details, wearing the same detail as someone else - even though otherwise dressed rather neutrally - may cause those two people's outfits to look like twins. Nobody pays any attention to the fact that two girls are both dressed all in black, but two girls in black with black-and-white checked shoes may already raise an eyebrow or two...
Well, her shoes are gingham and mine are pepita so that only makes our outfit cousins.
And in the end, we didn't think about it for long because so what.*


Somtimes the way we see similarity, when it come to dressing, can be a bit funny. For example, some people dressed all in black won't really catch your eye (ok, unless they are all victorian goth,death metal fans or so but that's not what I ment), but the same crowd all in red, or say, blue from head to toe will. Actually any other colour than black would certainly be noticed (this of course is not only related to the way we react to clothing but to colours aswell and certainly varies a bit from place to place). Then there's also the aspect of feeling that people following a certain style, different from one's own, tend to look reather alike. (I can only imagine: "You know those girls that like old movies, fleamarkets and stuff and dresses like my grandmother? They all look the same in their skirts, red lips and rolled hair..." :) The way we tend to look at others is an interesting topic but as I always try to keep myself short, I'll just leave it to this.

*) Back in the days on an extempore trip abroad (=no luggage) with J we wanted to go to the baths and did some rapid swimsuit shopping. We found bikinis and retro-cut swim shorts in the wame pattern and the idea of matching gear was hilarious in our hungover minds until we met at the pool. Then it was just really really lame. And we were concious about that for most of the stay.


Pssst. Thank you all for the comments on my previous posts and sorry if I'm not always too quick anwering them...

BOW YOUR BAG

Somtimes I feel I have no suitable bags for certain outfits. I've come up with the idea to tie a silk ribbon (that matches my clothes) into a bow and attach it to the bag. That way it goes along with the rest of the outfit better!

Skirt - GT; coloured by me
Shoes - Minna Parikka
Bag - Vintage

Dress - Trashy Diva
Shoes - Sixtyseven You

The first enemble was worn today at my newly founded Sunday Club (and the other one the previous night). We had our first meeting today; brunch buffet at a café nearby and then off to the big flea market for some thrifting. The Sunday Club gathers once a month and the idea is to do something really nice since it's only Sunday once a week. That Sunday you're supposed to leave the leisure - hangover wear at home and dress up properly!

It was such beautiful weather and the ones who showed up inspite of the partying yesterday all looked so nice; I really cursed myself for forgetting my camera at home! Miss Lola M. found a magnificent radio from the forties in the flea market and I got myself a pair of 50's black suede heels (no you cannot have too many black shoes, ever).

Now I'm going to catch some beauty sleep since I'll be going out with some seamen tonight; that tends to get quite heavy! Hey ohoy!

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.

NO HEADLINE FOR THIS ONE

Dress - Wings by Vadumsrum
Belt, bow, shoes - Vintage

Advantages of working from home:
You can get up late
You can go on a two hour lunch
You can take a healthy brake from work every now and then and take care of some chores at home, organize the closet in case of a sudden lack of inspiration or so.

Disadvatages of working from home :
You get up late, you work late until the middle of the night
You go on a two hour lunch; you work two hours more into the night.
You surf the web, blog around a little bit, read the paper and try on different combinations of dresses, shoes and eyeshadow. You don't do the dishes, vacuum or organize the closet and you propably don't work as much as you should.

(But hey, I did come up with the idea to attach my oh-so-versatile bow to my belt and it looks quite nice. I'll be sure to remember that at three A.M when I'm still sitting in this very same position by my mac...)

CONE-CATS AND TIGERS

I was supposed to stay in every night and work but instead I went out with X (formerly knowns as J :) to Tavastia to listen to Teddy and the Tigers and Sixgun Republic.

My home is now a kitty-hospital; Pekka-cat is back and getting better. But he wets the bed (=my bed), has to be fed by spoon and wears a cone (so he won't lick his opium bandaid). Therefore Lulu also has to wear a cone (so she won't lick the opium bandaid).
The cone-cats do not like teir current state but things should change for hte better soon.

BAD LUCK BLACK CAT

Cat pendant -An old gift from my youngest sister

Today I was actually going to do a whole different cheerful post but plans change...

When I came home last night after working the whole day I noticed one of my black panthers was really sick and in pain. We left to the animal hospital and I stayed there until half past two in the morning waiting while the vet had my cat, after which I was told he was going to have to spend the rest of the week in the kitty hospital. My cat is goin to need special food for, eh, forever or something but he is still going to be ok!

He sure is such a bad-luck black cat; he keeps on getting stuck beneath my drawers and still insists on going there, he was the one who dissapeared in April and he often eats until he throws up. Bad bad kitty. (Spit three times over your shoudler if you see him crossing your street!) But I do feel rather lucky to live in the city where there actually are animal hospitals that are open late on a Sunday night! (Of course, you really do pay for the service. Bye bye planned weekend trip to Oslo I guess).

I had to get up extremly early today so only had the time to catch two hours of sleep before heading off to do some work again. Not exactly a good way to start the week. But Mondays doesn't count anyway ; I'm really going to sleep now and start all over tomorrow.

DIFFERENT SHADES OF PINK / DIFFERENT SHAPES OF A TEE

I got challenged by Vasiliisa to go all pink today, as today is the Wear Pink Day and October is the breast cancer awareness month. The Wear Pink Day is a gesture to spread breast cancer awareness. I won't pass the challenge on to anyone specific but to everyone who feels up for it! If you don't want to go pink all the way, you can always do it with noticeable details, or wear the ribbon.

Since I have and will be spending most of the day at a place where I am required to wear certain clothing I'm not sure if I'll be able to make the whole pink thing properly, but I will go for some different shades of pink in my mini-tutorial on How to Alter a Basic Boat/U-neck Tee!

I think a round neck lining is nice, its very late 50's early 60's classic and goes well with skirts, capris, shorts and whatever. I jave lot's of basic H&M ones (in cheap material) but sometimes that kind of a tee can feel a bit too plain paired with certain garments. That model can also make someone who boxes (read: have big shoulders ands arms), especially someone whos has been boxing and do not box that regularly anymore, look kind of heavy (xenia warrior style you know). Changing the lining draws the attention away from the shoulders and gives the tee a whole new look, and it's really easy to do so!

One way is to grab some fabric (about 5 cm) in the middle of the lining and sew it togheter tigh twith a few stiches (ummm, but opposite of my drawing, you might want to sew it toghether on the inside for the right result :). I've done this to a dress and it changed it from plain to fancy, giving it a more feminine look. Why not add a brooche or bow in the middle too?


Another way to change the shape is to fasten the neck lining togheter with the sleeve opening (it requires the sleeves to be rather short though!). The reslut will be a bit reminding the lining of a galaxy dress. I've tied the sleeves and the lining toghether with a thin black ribbon on the black tee I have in the post below. That way you can alter the tee for just the time that you wear it, but I'd still recommend some stiches or a safetypin on the inside since the bows might not stay in place. For a more clean graphical finish, just sew it togheter tight, skip the bows!


If the shirt is not too skin tight you can also combine these two and the reslut will be really pretty! Try adding a big bow or a flower just to one side if you want some extra flair, even though I think this lining works best as it is.

BLACK, BLACK, BLACK (AND GREEN)

Skirt - MissSixty
Shoes - Stefanel
Hair bow - Vintage
Top - basic tee altered by me
Necklace - etsy /Untamed Menagerie
Tights - who knows, but they have a really nice dark green colour..

Yesterday I went to the Opening of Helsinki Design Week. Black was the colour of the night for me (and as most often when it comes to happenings involving the word "design" it was also the colour of the night for about 90 % of the rest of the people there *). Afterwards K and I stopped by a party held by a magazine but we arrived too late and the free drinks were already out. Damn!

But talking about black, my new (not that new! No shoppig for me now remember!) black skirt btw is a good solution to this dilemma.
(Ehrm, the little table in the back is new though. Or, it's really old but it's new for me that is. I did have a need for a little table of such kind for my magazines. I bought it from a charityshop for a few coins and anyway, furnitrue doesn’t count as shopping !)


*) Which made think of one evening when I studied in Budapest and was learning hungarian. One of the first scentences I fully understood was one that I overheard at a party at our school. A guy was asking two arty girls " why oh why do all art students always wear black?" (Dude, it's becuse it's the most stylish colour! ) Hah, such a cliché but still quite true. The same applied to design school at home as well. (Or the architect students, not to forget them. Oh, the good ol' black turtleneck.. :)