DARKER

(Well hello there photoshop!)

For me, refering to my post below about achieving a twenties look, the real 1920's girl always has dark brown or black hair and big brown eyes. This image I have is most likely due to the fact that the first that comes in mind is the twenties "it-girl" Clara Bow. I'm kind of feeling all that now. As I wrote below, it's nice with a little change every now and then - if we'd actually live in photoshop-world I would change my colours every other day (I'd love to go all red hair and blue eyes too). But since we dont' I guess I'll just have to invest in a wig (colouring is out of the question Im afraid, temtping as it is).
I'd really love to give it a go for real somtime ...

And because everything looks more vintage with sepia layers I'l throw in this pic too while I'm at it, even though I mostly look like a sailor girl from the early 30's in it and not like Clara Bow but ohwhatthehell.



Well actually sailorgirl is just fine since I'll sail away tonight for a few days to the other side of the Finnish Bay to celebrate a wedding (in a very very nice dress). Sailor ahoy!
Back next week, have a great weekend!

KIND OF TWENTISH

Not how I usually leave the house, but I went to a venue were the dress code was black-and-white and I dressed somewhat according to the theme of the night which was burlesuqe in the 1920's. (Sometimes I wonder if you could dress in all-grey to such a dresscode. Grey is still after all, black and white. Yes, very very funny heh.) It's nice with a little change every now and then.

Anyway, I get a lot of e-mails from nice people asking me about vintage fashion and where to be able to find things from a certain decade. Yes, I prefer vintage both from an aesthetic, ecological (and partly also economical) point of view, and it's great if you actually come across clothes from a certain decade/style that inspires your dressing. But I don't think the year a garment was produced really is that important in the end, since the final look mostly depens on the whole - your acessories, you makeup, your hairdo. You could easily make a dress form the say sixties look like it was from the twenties if you use the right detials (this is just an exapme. I'm not saying a psychedelic patterned dress will do the trick but I guess you get my point). And of course the more classical and timeless a piece of clothing is, the more versatile it is to adapt to different styles.

So in this case my actual clothing wasn't really that much 1920's at all (wearing a shirt from H&M bought last year), but I still think I managed to create a look that would clearly be seen as inspired by that deacade - smokey eyes and small pointy lips, pinned hair (built the same way as here but by rolling the curls in another direction, downwards instead) and drop-shaped earrings.


(If you want more details of the hair or makeup you can click the image bigger as usual)

WITH A LITTLE BIT OF KAHLO ON MY MIND

I went out the other night and dressed up slightly inspired by Frida Kahlo; braided hair, lots of flowers in it, a scarf wrapped around my dress.

(And remember, it's of course not good to smoke. But I have to say, they looked quite good doing it back in the days though...)

FLOWING

I know I'm repeating myself here again but big flowing skirts is the shit!

(And as usally it will look a lot better if you click the image bigger.)

IN THE WAITINGROOM

(Dress, belt, bag - Vintage, Shoes - X:it)

Well ok, I'm actually in my livingroom.
But I am waiting.
(I don't like to wait.)

Fugazi - In the Waitingroom

SCANDINAVIAN MONSOON / DAYMDREAMING / LAZY

Light knit dress - Diesel

I haven't worked for almost two months.
I had decided to pull myself togehter this week.
Get started with the 'to-do' list. Get up early, work, work out.

Maybe it's this constant summer rain, the humid, pressuring weather that's to blame, but I've gone up from bed around one in the afternoon and at four I'm still stitting in my underwear surfing the internet, opening work files but being totally uncapable of actually doing something with them. I only get out when it's already dark. Still managed to get out of the house a bit during daytime today and go to the gym. Then back home to doing nothing again - sitting by the window looking out. Feels like we have our own little monsoon here in scandinavia going on right now.
It rains a couple of times a day.




Haven't had my hair like this since I was a little girl.
Used to call it princess-hair.


Maybe I should open up my braids, let them out the window like Rapunzel and wait for a prince to climbe up. (Ha! In my part of town, not likely.)

Well, I wouldn't want any prince anyway.
But I would let Batman in though.
Then we'd leave togheter.

LULU READS THE PAPER

I woke up today to my friend calling me "Hey, you're in the paper! But you're not going to like the picture." Then my mom called and said the same thing.

There was an interwiev with me and Yvan in HBL (a daily newspaper written in swedish) on Tuesday. It was about blogging (surprise, surprise). So far so good, but I really can't get the picture they chose. Two people that blog about style and then they choose a picture like that. That's my head. Just the head.

Oh well, it doesn't really matter, it's just a bit amusing in an annoying way.

HAIRDO'S #3 - All rolled up

I have made another tutorial for you to try out. THis one is also quite fast to make when you know what you're doing. So in the beginning it might take some time...
It's is inspired by this kind of a 1940's do:


(I actually found this picture in the web after making the tutorial so it's not exactly the same, but similar. Didn't think of parting the hair and crossing the two parts over each other before the roll like in the picture. Maybe worth a try.)

So, for this do you'll need bobbypins and a hair rat/bun/roll.

First, make two small victory rolls on each side of the head (I have combed my bang to one side, but this do will of course work fine with curled bangs too). Take the hair from the top of your head on and roll it in the same way as in my previous tutorial. Fasten the roll with bobbypins. You can also just puff your hair by using combs aswell.



I make the roll quite flat but you can also roll it higher by placing it more on the top of your head.



Then roll the other side. If you have your bang down you should part the hair in the middle and make the rolls as high and big on each side (since my hair is parted to one side now one roll is smaller and the other bigger). I have twisted my bang up towards the roll and secured it with bobbypins.



Now for the rest of the hair - grab the bun roll and place it at the end of your hair, and start rolling the hair around it upwards, towards your head. Make sure that the bun is all covered and not showing from anywhere. You might have to roll the hair a couple of times to get it right.





Fasten it with as many pins as it takes in order for it to feel like it will stay. Stick the pins in from the top and press down.. The edges of the hair-roll may feel a bit loose and fluffy. You need to twist them slightly inwards and tuck the looser hair into the roll - stick a bobbypin in the hair horistontally, twist in upwards and then down into the bun to get the hair tight.



Add a flower or stomehing else pretty and you're done!




This will also work for short hair. With the rat-roll-bun thing you can rather easily make a do that will give the image of longer locks.


I've tried this on Ina who has rather short hair. Her hair is longer in the front and shorter in the back, on the edge of being too short actually. I could make the roll but it wouldn't stay in place propably. I'd say your hair should go 1,5 times around the bun for it to work. Mine again goes about five times around it which almost is too much, since the roll gets rather heavy.

So, start rolling!
(And yes, the long-promised makeup thing will come here soon...)

IN ACTION

Getting ready - Removing cat from scene - Posing.






So, here's the summercottage-skirt in action. It's a wrap around and therefore very practical, especially if you go out wineing and dining with your friends and order in a lot of stuff - you just make the bow a little bit looser to make room for dessert!

(The shirt and the skirt are vintage, the shoes Stefanel and the bracelet from Ansa in case anyone was wondering...)

BY THE LAKE

I went through the drawers and wardrobes at the summercotage and found some cute things; a handsewn dress from the early sixties that my grandmother's sister used to wear, a rather psychedelic caftan...( a bit too psychedelic for me so it did not come back with me to town...) and a skirt that definitely is a keeper!

ROSES ON ROSES

Well I've said it before - sometimes less is more, yes, but sometimes a little bit too much is just right.

A DAY IN THE COUNTRYSIDE

The citygirl spends some time in the countryside in Souther Carelia.

Live cows!

One day maybe we will be able to transfer pheromones and molecules somehow through picture and video for us to percept scents, feeling and temperature. Then these pics would bring you the scent of meadow flowers and hey, sweet wild strawberries that are everywhere along the road, but also the heavy smell of manure. (It smells quite a lot around those live cows. But I think they are rather nice anyway).







The dress is vintage, found at the summercottage.
It came home with me.

SALMON PINK, BOTTLE GREEN, CHERRY RED

It's totally OK to mix green and red (without looking like a christmas elf) if you know what you're doing.
I'd like to think I know what I'm doing.
(That's why I look so smug in the picture).


Blouse & Cardigan - H&M
Skirt - GT dress, re-colored
Bag - Mango, Shoes - 67 You
Less smug. One of my cats made it partly in the picture. Not the first time that happens.
(Btw if you wonder why that damn suitcase is in every second picture it's just due to the fact that it's place is right there on the floor next to my sofa and I just don't like to move it around. Or something.)

The skirt is, or was, actually a nasty salmon colored tube dress is size XS that I got from Gina Tricot earlier this summer, with the plans to wear as a skirt and make it grey (since the other skirt was to become green). The gray color didn't really turn out cool and strong like I wanted it to but attached to the fabric more like the color of Powercow chocolate milkshake (which I love but wouldn't want to wear) or the snow on the sidewalk in late March. So I put the skirt in the blue wash together with the other skirt but it still didn't receive the nice steelgray color I wanted. But since the other skirt did not become green after all this did in the end. Great.


--- Then a little note - I'm still sort of on vacation and will go to the countryside for a while so for those of you who have made different kinds of inquiries about my blog via mail, I will get back to all of you next week.

For you others, I'll update my links next week too. If you want in let me know. ---

(That headline almost sounds like a dinner with salmon, wine and cherrypie for dessert. Made me a bit hungry now. I think I'll end my detox soon and have a glass of red.)

TO SHOP OR NOT TO SHOP

...is actually not the question. At least for me, since I'm really not that much of a "shopper". But it is for some.



So this is K. One of my very best friends and also my work-partner. But besides the work we do together she also wors as an Art Director and she works a lot. So sometimes when she feels really tired and stressed (that's quite often)she does some shopping. You know, some people eat chocolate, others get drunk, some shop. And also shopping whenever the sales are happening, just for the fun of it. Nothing wrong with that really from one point of view (which would be the capitalist view of our well-being society I'd guess. And we're all part of that, one way or another). But if you aready have a lot of things (how many of you reading this will actually need a pair of new shoes for real within say, the next two years?) or if you earn ok money but never really manage to save any of it it might be good to look at things from another pint of view.

K has a lot of really nice clothing and accessoary, she has very cute but still classy style and likes to get stuff from new designers or quality brands. (I wrote this because I've labelled my blog "fashion blog". Otherwise I coul've skipped this sentence :) But on our trip in Berlin, staying with our friend in a house where nobody really works (works in a matter of going somewhere to work and then get paid at the end of the month) but paint and do music and thus live on a quite tight budget K started talking about cutting down the shopping.

Inspite of the small budget our friend (who moved to Berlin from Helsinki last spring) still got by quite well. She didnt have a credit card but had a certain amount of cash to spend every month. She just didn't do any shopping - the only exeption being a pair of blue vintage suede boots for €10 in July (fashionblogger writing here again) - but otherwie lived quite like before. Now of course you can't compare Berlin to Helsinki in a matter of the costs for taking a cab or eating out (or at home either, not to mention the other costs for living) since Helsinki is so darn expensive, but I guess both K and I could get by on a lot smaller budget than now. It's hard to let go of a certain lifestyle one is used to, and I have no need for a drastic change, even though I could cook at home a bit more often than I do for example (half of the things I buy I'm forced to throw away since they go bad before I even try to make something out of them). And I could take the nightbus home with the common people every now and then after a night out on town instead of always grabing that costy cab. (please note my slight tone of irony here. I'm rather common too).

Then there is always the topic of what should you really do with all your money - save it for a bigger flat, travels, the future children, give everything extra away or whatever? I'm not going to go in on that (is anyone still reading at this point btw?) . I'll just stick to the more shallow stuff here.

Well anyway (you can continue reading here if you skipped some text above now), K made a decision not to do any shopping anymore. She didn't really say how long this project would last, I guess it will evolve into just buying less in the future, since I'm still quite sure she hasn't bought her last pairs of shoes yet :)
So, wish her luck!

Because this blog is mainly about pretty things and since it's nice with pics instead of just text I'll post a picture my magnificent mobilephone captured of some cute tings K got while it was still ok for her to consume - a lovely leather purse and leather cuff. Everything always looks like candy on her:


.............
...and a little update. K bought curtains and was a bit worried about that but they don't count since she needed them, they therefore had a purpouse and weren't just for herself but for her house and Mr too.

(If anyone wondres why this is labelled under 'fucked up things' it's just because this whole topic is quite fucked up really, even though it's quite general; there are even blogs about people changing their lifestyles towards non-consuming and so on. It's just fucked up since we make such a big thing about it, in some parts of the world they would have no clue what the hell I'm talking about.)

HAIRDO'S #2 - Pincurl it Baby!

Oh well my darlings, I know you don't really come here just for nice pics from the archipelago... So I give you this - another retro inspired hairdo tutorial:



This hairdo is easy, when you're used to twirl/pincurl your hair you can do it within five minutes. I'm not that specific with how I place my rolls, so I get it done fast, If I pay more attention to how i roll my hair it will of course take longer time.

This time I've rolled it into four rolls. I've pulled my fringe back to the side with a comb, this do works as well with or without finrge.

This hairdo is great for a bad hair day when your hair is
a) too clean; fly and won't stay in place. Then I roll it up in about six rolls. Done like this in the morning and opened in the evening it gives a beautiful wavy hair.
or
b) dirty (like mine is now in these pics, sorry for that :)

1) First, take a section of your hair and picurl it, by rolling it around your finger and start rolling it towards the roots. Roll it quite tight since it will loose itself up a bit anyway when you fasten it. For a closer look, check out Super Kawaii Mama for example. She shows how she rolls her hair in the front in a quite easy-to-see video-tutorial.



2) The roll should look should look like this when you're halfways.



3) When you've rolled the hairsling all the way to your head, you twist the roll inwards and fasten it with bobbypins inside the roll. It took me some time to find the best way to fasten the roll so that the pin doesn't show too much and so the roll stays in place - I stick one down and one to the side in the middle of the curl. I usually have to stick about three pins into each roll. This is a bit tricky in the beginning but you'll get there!



4) Then, take another section of your hair and to the same with it.



5) ..and with the same of the rest of your hair. Stick in some extra pins wherever the hair feels too lose and if you have some loose slings of hair, tuck them in between and under the rolls.



Since I didn't pay that much attention to how I placed my rolls and since my hair was dirty I got myself a "bold spot" on one side. But no worries, I fix it by sticking a comb with flowers on it there. Otherwise I would've just rolled one of the curls again...



This really is very easy and turns out rather nice!



You can also make this if yo have short hair, mine is actually close to being too long. It should work with hair even a bit shorter than shoulder-lenght, but then you'll need to roll it into about six rolls I'd guess, since fewer rolls need longer hair to stay togehter.

Oh and you can always send me some pics if you make any of my do's you know :)

(And not to forget - I know some of you have asked me for a make-up tutorial too and I promise I will make one soon ok! But don't be dissapointed then - my daily makeup is really not anything of the extrordinary; eyeliner, lipstick and mascara...)