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 :)

CHERRY RED

As you know, t's all in the details - sometimes the fact that you change your tights from blue to red and let the hair out (and ok, wear exaggerated eyeliner and huge fake lashes too) changes the whole outfit from a cherry cupcake with lots of baby blue frosting and colourful nonpareils into, umm, a shot of cherry brandy or something.

Then I had that cherry brandy shot (or well, whiskey actually but cherry brandy just sounds better :) and went out and danced all night until my feet were so sore I could hardly walk home. Oh oh, that devilish rock n' roll music!

SHOTS FROM SHOWS

A lot of you have asked for it, and since I'm mostly needels and pins (and leisure wear) for the moment I'll give you some show picures, on and off stage!

From the Helsinki Burlesque Festival
Photo : Hilla Kurki, Make Up : Tiia Kosonen

Jackie & Vera, me
by Risto Kantola

Jackie and Lola
by Laura Kansanen-Stavale

Photos by Mikko Ala-Peijari
I got these via Ilona who saw a small show :) I had the worst flue ever during it, high fever and felt like shit but you can't really tell now afterwards.

Backstage pictures by Risto Kantola.

Tonight it's time for the third Club Wanted, and once again we have a brand new totally hilarious number (thus the needles and pins mentioned there above, we've all been sewing and fixing all week...). Unlike normally we will perform at 22:00 hrs already so make sure to be on time!

You can see more pictures at our myspace, at the Helsinki Burlesque Flickr page, or if you join us on facebook. We have shows weekly so there will be lots of new pictures soon! There are few pictures from Club Wanted though, since the stage is too small and the place too dark and crowded in order to get any good shots...

KICK OFF, KIND OF

I'm starting to get this feeling that some of you, and sometimes me too, might go all nauseous if I mention the word "spring" or "floral" during this month one more time (not to mention pastels, right?). But you see, living in a city 841,4 kilometers from the arctic circle means it's dark and shitty here a big part of the year, especially now with the global warming and it's warmer winters with little snow to light it up, just sogginess and rain. So now that we're were half-way trough March the countdown for spring has definitely begun for my part and I took a little false start to summer by wearing the the old romper I found at our summer house last year. Of course, I had to wear it with an extra knit and my knee-long jacket outside, so I couldn't really celebrate spring kick off yet. But I guess I'm at least one step closer!


I noticed two things with rompers/jumpsuits;
One- I'd never wear a dress this short. But it feels totally different when the little garment has legs. Strange huh?
Two - the jumpsuit is really not the most practical piece of clothing. You have to get all undressed when you want to pee :/

(You know what? It's snowing now goddammit. Weather - me 1-0. As usual).

PASTELS

What's wrong with me? While considering myself to be the girl who generally goes for black I now find myself craving (as you may have noticed) for sheer pastel colours and floral prints. Blame it on the upcoming spring, blame it on me being influenced by lovely blogs over the years. Oh well, pretty it is either way.

Some spring-y items from two of my all-time favourite brands; a babyblue floral dream from Vivian of Holloway and another lovley summery dress from Trashy Diva. And why not throw in some peachy Parikkas, silky lingerie and fluffy accessories while I'm at it?

From left to right:
Fifites Halterneck Rose Garde Blue Dress from Vivien of Holloway,
Pirouette tulle necklace (that I'd wear in my hair...) Etsy / DeliciousSoul,
Peach Harlow Lingerie Set from What Katie Did via PandorasChoice,
Circle Skirt Day Dress from Trashy Diva and
the Raquel Shoe in powder pink by Minna Parikka.

I'm also drooling over this pair of denim dungarees, from Tara Starlet (also included in my all-time favourites); to be worn with my toffee coloured pumps an my hair rolled up with a scarf around it. They also come in full-lenght and I can't decide which one'd be better, jumpsuit or trouser version?



But but, for the moment none of these items are neither in nor out of my budget since I don't have one; I am not getting anything new! But,I do have a couple of floral fabrics in my closet waiting to be sewn into something, and I have an amazing rosy dress still unworn until it's premier in slightly warmer times!

Oh, and not to forget; if you order a springtime dress from Vivien of Holloway now yo get a matching bolero included! Worth checking out...

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!

CHERRY BLUE

The other day I went out and had a huge cupcake for breakfast. Dressed in baby blue and cherries I felt like one big cupcake myself. I also felt childishly happy about the fact that I'm grown up and can have cupcakes for breakfast whenever I want to and nobody can say anything about it. Hah!

Cardigan & Blue thights - H&M, Skirt - Miss60, Cherry top - Love Kills/ebay.
(Can't remember where the cherry-belt is from but it's quite deliciously tacky isn't it? I haven't decided if I love it or hate it or weather I should keep it or not... )

OH SHOES!

When it comes to material things in my posession, my shoes are what I love the most. Of all pretty things one can wear shoes are for me what crowns the outfit. I've always been fascinated with the sculptural shape of the high heeled shoe; the shapes of the heel, the line of the shoe, the rounded toe.

My appartement is full of shoes in different places; I have more shoes than I have time to wear, but why hide all of them in a dark closet for no-one to admire? I wouldn't decorate my kitchen with a pair of shoes but they can look pretty nice elsewhere at home, while waiting to one day be worn...

I'm alowing my shoe collection to grow by the principal "if it's in a colour I do not yet have" and I recently cheered myself up a bit by finnally getting myself a pair of blue shoes!

Just like you can vary your clothing with different accessories you can actually also vary or re-new your shoes, by adding a ribbon, brooch or bow to them to make them go better along with some outfit for example. I got a tip from a reader of mine about a site called Bling My Boots, from where you can order different chains, ribbons and other apparel to customize your boots with, and give the same shoe many different looks. Rahter brilliant yes, but even more brilliant -and affordable- it is to do all of this yourself. Like when I bowed my bootlets for less than two euros, like Nanó did with her boots, or like Oriane does all the time, boots and heels alike! Basically there's no limit for what you couldn't do - paint, glue, attach- but do it with precision. Personally I don't like the too "home made" look, that just reminds me of hippies and emo teens with felt-marker decorated shoes (been there, done that and thank god that was ages ago).

CUT CUT, CUT IT OFF LET IT GO

Shirt - SailorJerry

Sometimes you just need to reach for the scissors and go for it in order to actually wear something nice that has been locked in your closet for too long, even though it may hurt a bit to start the cutting. And it really doesn't take much in order for some items to get a fresh new look and to be able to extend their time of use - try to cut long sleeves in to short for example, add a ribbon or some lace around the new lining, use the old extra sleeve to make a sew-on pocket or a little bow to add on.

Remember this shirt dress? A bit too tight to ever be able to wear and relax at the same time, since the buttons tended to pop at the most critical part flashing my undies to the world, I was on the verge of letting it go at ebay or huuto (I'm so bad at letting things go!), but instead I cut it of to a nice fitted shirt. And then I went out to listen to Marko Haavisto.

Tonight I'll go out and listen to Jussi Syren & the Groundbreakers (but that hasn't really got anything to do with the shirt anylonger).

A CABINET PORTRAIT OF CABARET GIRLS

The Itty Bitty Tease Cabaret
Photography by Atelieri Onyxei Haapala


If you're out and about around here try to spot where they are and have your portrait taken! Otherwise, browse around their gallery for some great sets of portraits.

(The photo above is scanned from a print, the digital version is much brighter. I prefer the printed one - and just got a big print of us, without thext, framed in black and gold. Now I just need to figure out where to put it; I'm running out of wallspace :)

SUNDAY / MARCH

I can't belive it's march already - time goes so fast, but still summer seems so very very far away...
Anyway, it's Sunday so as usual I'll go all soft with the songs again.



Well, there's not much else to be said here.

(Even thoguh I, strangely enough, wasn't completely sold after seing the movie. I liked it, but I did not love it. I guess mostly since I read about it already in the making of-stage and kept hearing about it for a year until it finally came here - which had brought me to the point where I felt I was about to see the world's eight wonder appear on the silverscreen. Which is wasn't, but it's a film that does grow on you, and did become better when I saw it again a few years later. What I like about it is perhaps that it really does feel like you are wathcing someone's memories instead of living the present; remembering endless summer days, a thick warm wind moving the leaves of a tree almost like in slow motion, sheer pastel colours in a pale and soft morning light, the deaht wishes of a young girl.)