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.. :)