A STRIPED HELLO

 Hello there!


Today's post will be about...



...today's outfit! What a surprise!
I actually had a lot else planned but believe it or not, even though I'm on leave form work I am terribly busy all the time, have so much to do* but don't seem have time for anything!

I got this knit on sale for five euros some days ago -you can never ever have too many classic striped shirts- and have been sporting it with tights and a black skirt alike. But I'm dreaming about this with a flatter belly and a pair of proper capris for a classic preppy casual fifties/sixties look. (Have no idea where to find my ideal capris though; I don't want them too skin tight you see. But they still have to have a good fit on the behind. So not any crappy pants will do. Tricky.)

To give this post a little more content and some of that promised hair-related topic (I do have a proper thing coming up, but not the time for pics and text yet...) I can tell you that an easy variation to your everyday hairstyle can be done by wearing a scarf or headband and parting your hair differently than normally. I usually have my hair parted in the side but parted it in the middle now. My scalp likes it with a change every now and then too.

*) OK, so much to do includes actual commissions to finnish and too many emails for me to manage for the moment but also me wanting to cook rhubarb jam, clean and organize both houses, book time to the beauty salon to fix my lashes before the baby comes (yes, why not?) plus take my daily two naps :)


PS. Now, let's see if that first picture of mine will make it to some forum where they discuss how "fashion bloggers" pose silly! I once saw one of less seripus pics in such a thread. And you know I'm super serious about everything all the time, especially outfit posing! Serious business out here on the internet.

THE PREGNANCY POST

Here's where we started out!

 Or, not started really, but at around 14 weeks. Look! I look so tiny!

And now at 36 weeks. Four weeks to go today, exactly!
(And yes, I still fit in the same dress - although it might be ruined for future use now... )

In the end I did not get that many dresses for maternity. Not that I planned to either. But I actually got even less. Most of the pieces I purchased are such that they can be worn "normally" too (as in are not labelled as mommy-clothing). I got a couple of vintage dresses too, apart from the old ones ones my mother gave me.  And then I had one made, plus made a few myself. I have another dress coming up still, but I'm making it with a flatter belly and belted waist in mind.

Otherwise I've gotten by by the few looser pieces I had myself and by buying a couple of maternity long sleeved tees and two very stretchy, very useful black skirts. Plus a whole lot of stockings and leggings. The H&M Mama leggings are comfy, but of really crappy quality - they all get holes in the groin after some use. And if you wear them just like that, like I do, with rumpan bar, you go trough quite many.

I had a few ideas of comfy-but-pretty pieces to get from some Etsy shops, but never got around to do it. Well, there is still about a month left, but I have realized I will not be pregnant forever. So I think I'll save those for the next time. Will there be one, that is.

(And  checking back as it is May, do I still think it's fun to dress up -referring to this comment here-? Kind of, yes :)



When it comes to shoes I've been wearing my normal ones, mostly the mid heeled ones. I bought some flats, but they are actually less comfy than the ones with some height. I added some extra padded soles for the ballerinas and have now been wearing those too. The higher heels have been waiting for later in my closet though.

So far my feet have not swollen at all, but we'll see how these last weeks go, now that the weather is also warmer. Although I've gained weight I've still been moving around, going swimming and so on, so perhaps they won't swell up. But I almost hope they would a little, as I have a pair of wedges I got with pregnancy in mind that are a little bit too big for me to wear comfortably :D

At home I walk around in my ugly but oh so needed yoga slippers (with acupunctural beads); my feet use to ache a lot normally too, and now they really need the pressure spots the slippers give.



I've been using a  lot of natural oils and lotions -virgin coconut oil, almond and jojoba oil, organic belly butter - for my belly. Pretty much oils I use everyday for al-round use too, plus some especially meant for pregnancy. In the beginning I also used Decubal form the pharmacy, as mom said it has liposomes that help to avoid marks. So far I've also managed to avoid those much talked about stretch marks. On my belly, that is. My legs have taken the heaviest burden here though, as it seems most kilos have settled on the thighs. Typical; thanks a lot genes, that's the hardest place for me to get rid of squish. Should've seen it coming...

I thought of that being pregnant from autumn to summer in a country with big changes in the seasons is perhaps the hardest nine months clothing wise - my belly was big during late winter, cold spring, warmer spring and now summer, requiring difrerent pieces of clothing. Would it have grow from say April to September it would be easier to fix the wardrobe, as the temperature nor conditions vary that drastically (as in, no snow).  Not that I'm complaining, just sayin'.

COVERED UP

You know how I always say that if your hair some days has differnet plans than you have, hide it in a scarf, turban or beret? But, if you're having a really really bad hair day, take it one step furhter!



Show those locks who's in charge and hide them completely, then add some faux hair to show instead!

If you don't have a little sad rat (as my hairdresser and I tend to call my clip-on bangs) like I you can roll a piece of longer clip-on hair into bangs, a roll or a nice smooth wave hanging out from whatever it is you are covering the rest of those little fuckers (; that would be, your own locks) with.

I bought my bangs blonde and had then bleached into the right platinum shade when I was still platinum myself. They are made of real hair. Later I coloured them light brown to suit my own hair, and now I every now and then put one of my tinted hair masks (which I do no longer need to use myself as I have cut away all the bleached parts which tended to loose colour) to help the shade stay. Otherwise I only wash them with conditioner every now and then, and then use a curler and heat protector to style it. I avoid silicones and such in my own hair products, but for faux locks and such those are recommended.

What comes to the scarf/turban, you need to use some pins to help it stay in place during the day. I put a couple of pins before I tie the ends together, so that they won't show, and put a couple in the sides for extra support.

PS. More hair stuff coming up later this week. Just saying.

SUNDAY.

I was supposed to give you some Sunday baking but the recipe did not turn out that well; we'll save it for another go and another time. The rest of the day I spent out in the sunshine in the countryside gardening (or, having others help me out with it actually) and fixing that patio of mine among the lilacs. Barefoot.  So - here's a song for you instead.



Not available on my Sunday list -yet- as the song cannot be found on Spotify.

BLACK WITH COLORED PEARLS

I bought a silky (read: polyester blend) tunic on sale for just around ten euros. It will be good for getting my boobs out (read: nursing) and after all that I think I will use it as a night gown. And right now it just feels rather good as it's soft and flowing and the empire wist line stretches.

The tunic is from Seppälä. The bracelet is a necklace of mine and the green pearls I bought in Budapest a long time ago.

HOME & KITCHEN (PLUS CATS)

Our flat is in the latest issue (no6-7)  of Home & Kitchen-magazine (Koti&Keittiö).
The article was shot over a year ago, but not that much has changed at home after that - just some details and the mint green trolleys and so on.



My round belly encounters a pic of flat-belly me. I almost forgot I look like that in my normal state!
I also forgot this is what our flat looks like when it's tidy.
Ha. Ha.

Even though I take quite a lot of photos at home myself I always like seeing the pictures that a professional has taken; which angles they choose and what they choose to snap. The teams always move around some things a little, like change the angles of a chair or the location of a flower pot or so.
There aren't that many pictures in the feature online so here are some shots of the article instead:





I noticed floor plan showed is actually the one of the corner flat in out building; we don't have windows on three sides. And fortunately we don't have to go trough the bathroom to get to the kitchen, they're besides each other, not after one another, and we have a storage toom too. But otherwise it's just the same.



But yes, ehrm, you know what this made me think of (and feel obliged to do)? Clean!
Clean clean clean!

(btw here's a link to an article about my old flat, which was funny for me at least to look at. Same same but different, you know?)

PREPPY PREGGERETTE

 I made myself a new nautical-inspired dress!

I made the top double so I will be able to use it for nursing too.

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW : FINALLY!

Hello form the sunshine! Today I've been hanging out in the meadow outside our building. Because it is finally warm, you know, as in not just a little warm but warm as in for real this time.

I had Spanish cheesecake or -curd or what you would call it, with fresh blueberries and some cherry jam.

And read old magazines and did my nails. In coral.

And took out my sandals!  I figured my Hasbeens'd be steady and good pregnancy shoes, although they are the "sky high"-ones. So far so good.

It struck me that it was pretty much exactly two years ago that I was sitting here on the meadow on a similar warm day like this, enjoying the sun before going to renovate our flat-to-be. Time flies!

(Although, you know when something feels like just yesterday and in the same time like an eternity ago? That time is a bit like that.)

I remember being in the same meadow with my grandparents; my grandfather took us swimming from the rocks a little further away. He'd just sit and wait, he never went in the water. And in some winters someone used to make these big snow sculptures of animals in the meadow; whales and octopuses and icebears that they'd spray with water to turn icy and hard. We'd go there with my grandmother. And you could go inside them and play and they had slides to go down along, along their tentacles and tails and so on. And I remember they used to paint part of the snow too, like the eyes and faces of the animals. But that was really a very very long time ago.

FLOWERS, SEEDS AND GREEN LEAVES

All weekends the past month we've spent out at the farm. It's less than an hour from town so we've been there a lot after work on weekdays too.


Eddi has been working and I have, well, mostly been sleeping, but also attempted to do some house keeping and gardening. Some sort of gardening that is, as said, my nails are more red than my fingers are green.




I bought some plants for the porch.



And planted some more. This for example will turn into lavender. I planted some outside too.
The piece of glass from a broken window should work like a mini green house. I say should since it might just as well have fried the seeds...



So I bought a fully grown Lavender too, just in case.
Also; the one I planted will not bloom until next year anyway.



I've also made lots -and I mean lots- of cuttings from the pelargoniums. All the ones I had last year died.
I have great plans for these then once the house gets it's new floors and wallpapers and new paint on the windows. Whenever that'll be...



Then I had Eddi go all Strömsö (Finns know what I refer to...) and build me some boxes for planting. Or well, so far only one, although I have more seeds - the  lettuce and spinach are waiting for the next box still.



There is a bigger spot for growing vegetables a bit further away that the relatives in the other houses around here use too, where I aim to plant some stuff (...let's see...carrots perhaps. If I can drag my behind across the road and just do it.) but just beneath the stairs we grow some herbs and strawberrries. I haven't planted those originally; it was all mess so I cleaned it up a bit and planted some more chive and parsley. In my own way. The bag says to put the seeds with so and so much space in between but I'm all "naah wtf, nature doesn't measure" and sprinkle it all a little here and there and so far it has turned out pretty good. Ehrm.



Juice break on the stairs. (I love enamel and coated tin cups. This set is fair trade and from Moonk.)

And here's my huge shadow in the grass.



Turns out it was too sunny on the porch for some of the flowers so I had to move them inside instead.
Where they look pretty nice too. The sofa is new in the room but I'll get back to that some other time.



I've also been cutting and cleaning up the lilac bushes outside the house, to fit a table and some garden chairs in between them.  (Or, to reach the spot where said table and chairs will be without getting spiders in your hair and face from the branches hanging in the way. Uuuuh. ) I saved some of the branches with flower buds on them and took them inside.

Let's see if they will bloom or not.

Last but not least, here are some bonus pictures of baby lambs!

They'll be brought out today, to spend the whole summer outside in the green.

(And then come autumn it will be less nice for them. But that's another story. Want a happier ending for this post? Now I'm listening to The Skatalites and about to make some carrot bread and it's warm and sunny outside and no baby lambs will die today! )

ELVIS FRENZY

Young women getting Elvis haircuts, 1957.
By Grey Villet / Life archives via Retronaut.