SUMMER VIBES FROM WHEN IT WAS (ALMOST) WARM

October! The month changes and the sun says 'K bye!' and we get Halloween-ish storms in an instant. Not that I am complaining per se; I have big shawls and red wine and berets and turbans to cover my hair with.

But here's a throwback to an planned-but-unposted  (applies to 99%of the photos on my memory card since 2016...) day and it's outfit  from summer when I wore a turban in much more sunnier weather:

This summer I have been filming a thing that, for the first time in a long time allowed me to have a purpose to wear lots of nice clothing again! Meanwhile, something very strange had happened during the past as I suddenly find a lot of garments in my closet can no longer fit. Or not comfortably at least.

But happy to notice this old Trashy Diva-gem of mine still does!

The cardigan I've customed myself with iron-on patches, the turban is from Rubylea and the sunglasses broken by now.

And you know what? It's not even that long until it's summer again!

BROWN BUTTERFLIES

Summer was saved and we finally got our warm days. Still, in the early mornings and at night you can already feel the end of summer in the form of a chilly breeze or sad sound among the trees. But daytime I am enjoying the sun and enjoying the fact that I get to wear some of my summer dresses. Here posing in one of my almost forgotten Trashy Diva dresses! Toodeli-doo.

I actually would have a lot of other things to blog about than dresses, a lot, but I have no time for that at the moment. Give me 12 more hours to the day please! Make it last June again (with sunshine this time) for a little while! Uaaaa!

FANTASIA PICNIC / SITTING FOR A PAINTING

A couple of days ago Dag and I went for a late afternoon park picnic. It also served as a set up for a future painting. It will part of a series of paintings of performers. But more on that once the series is finished and the artist has gotten to present her work by herself first.

First of all I just have to say that  IT IS FINALLY WARM.

Tinker's rainbow hair.

Fiona, the milliner.

Sandy.

Pepper and her hairpiece.



Mimi and her girls.

And me and my little boy.

Who found a new friend.

Picnic patterns.

The artist memorizing.

Petra's paintings are always full of colours and patterns and it will be interesting to see how this eventually turns out!

BOOTS DENIM AND BOOZE

My new booties have been put into immediate use. Good for them, good for me.

I  reclaimed one of my oldTrashy Diva dresses which I have not worn in quite a long time. It's the "liquor dress" -

 - it has a novelty style pattern with different liquor labels on.
I bought it from the Trashy Diva shop few years back when we visited New Orleans.

Now I'm thinking of letting it travel to London with me.

I'm leaving on Sunday. I hate packing for short trips. (Because then you somehow need more clothes the when you are away for a long time.) I hate having to choose what shoes to wear, shoes that you can bla bla walk around in all day. Well in any case I hope it will be warm; it finally got warm here. Warm and sunny and fabulous please!

COLOURS AND AFTERNOON SUN

 Just look at these colours! I have hundreds of pictures like this from each year but it's as much of an 'Oooooh!' every time.  Isn't autumn amazing?
(Animals spotted in this picture: two. Cats.)

And here I am posing all naturally as anyone would when standing among a bunch of autumn leaves.
In a Trashy Diva dress. It's those checks making their way out of the closet again because: Autumn.

Animals spotted in this one: several. For a well-trained sheep eye like mine. They are hanging out on the other side of the road between the birches.

Also, thank you for the comments on my marathon-long post the other week. I did not answer them separately, but read each and every one and appreciate the thoughts given me.

DOUBLE CHECKS FOR A BAD WEATHER BRUNCH

Yesterday we defied the nasty October weather and headed out for a family brunch to celebrate my sister's hubby's birthday.

It's been rather cold but the vintage pendleton jacket I got myself earlier this year has kept me warm still even though it's unlined. Hooray. And because autumn kind of equals checks I've been pairing it with my checked scarf. Double checks all the way!

The dress underneath is trashy Diva.

A SUNDAY-MONDAY

As I’ve been gone every weekend the past month I felt rather worn out today -my two last shows were both a seven hour drive away - so I had myself a Sunday today instead. We hanged out on the farm with Dag and basically did nothing. I made his favourite - pancakecake as he says- and we built a railroad for hiw trains ad animals to ride. And noticed how oddly much it feels like autumn already; the first of September.

THE JAYNA DRESS IN BLUE HAWAII / ABOUT TRASHY DIVA SIZING AND MORE

As you may know, one of my absolute favourite brands is Trashy Diva. I have many many TD dresses and they all have a great cut and as I’ve come to notice, will flatter your curves weather you have a lot or a little of them. So when Trashy Diva asked me to try out and review one of their dresses from their new Blue Hawaii collection I was not late to reply with a big and happy Yes!

As I have ordered from Trashy Diva numerous times - I think it’s the brand I own the most dresses from - I am more than often asked about the sizing, and ordering form there. So I thought I’d also do a brief on that here at the same time.

I chose the Jayna dress, which is also a brand new model. The dress is made out of rayon.

Then I stated thinking that I’ve done it again - added one more fancy dress to the collection of “good-if-I -manage-to-wear-it-once-per -summer”-dresses. I just can’t help myself, I am a sucker for all things pretty! (Well, one day when I do no longer have small children I shall strut around in my fancy dresses again and all of the time.)

But, turns out, this is one of those floral dresses than can be just anything! That goes with anything, you know. Basic monday or wedding wear -everything goes depending on how it is styled.

See, nice and everyday normal if you so like.
The kind of floral dress that is not too fancy for day wear and would look good both with flats and heels - that would probably look good even when worn with Birkenstock sandals.

And -ta da! -with fancier hair it turns into a fancy piece - especially with and up-do that will show the beautiful cut-out in the back of the dress. I also like that is has a more narrow skirt than most of my other dresses, a little variation is always nice.

I find the dress quite timeless with a touch of the forties at the neckline with it’s sweetheart shape and fabric-coated buttons. Which also can, if you want to and style it so, give a very trendy 90’s vibe. (Would I be young and trendy I might shorten this dress and wear it nineties style with heavy boots or those thick soled canvas shoes and a jacket to go along. But I’m not, so I won’t.)

I’ve never had any issues with my orders from Trashy Diva always received the right items ind the right sizes. (Do keep in mind that when ordering from the US to the EU customs will most likely apply. The first years I always had my parcels coming straight home to me without having to pay vat and import tax but nowadays everything seems to go via the customs automatically.)

The sizing of the dresses is very accurate to the size chart but measurements run a little bit different for each dress and cut so always check the charts (it is very easy to find next to every dress on the site). For exampe, I have dresses in size 8 and 10 but even some in size 6!

In general I’d say to choose the dress according to your waist size. For those dresses with stretch you can take the smallest size possible, but the cotton and rayon dresses won’t really stretch so remember that, although getting one or half an inch smaller than my waist size when that has been the closets has not been a problem for me. If it gets any smaller than that it won’t feel comfy when you sit down for example, even though you might still fit in the dress. As I have noticed from some of my old dresses thank you very much pregnancy.

Now with the Janya dress I was not sure weather to go for the bigger or smaller size, to leave some slight comfy room in the waist or go for a snug fit with perhaps half an inch more to long for. The bust measurement on the bigger size would have been to big for me so I went for snug which was the right choice, and it does not feel too tight at all! Ta-da again!

The dresses that consist of a waist section, like the Forties dress for example, are often rather roomy in the bust and fit up to big cups. Still, they don’t get bulky on a smaller bust either, but actually gives a very good shape. I’ve noticed that the dresses that have the top cut in just one piece - like the Americana, Day dress or Anette for example - have less room in the bust. For me with a big rib cage they come out as perhaps a bit flattening and tight on the chest. Going for a bigger size does not really help as the dress then will be too big all over. But all in all it’s not a disastrous thing, I stil love those styles and wear my dresses happily!

An issue I know others also have had is that the dresses with a waist band are sometimes hard to close; the dress is lined in the waist to keep a good shape and the invisible zipper is very thin. That can make it hard to close over the seams. For one of my dresses I didn’t manage it without a helping hand; it usually gets a bit easier with wear though. The Jayna dress here is of the same kind of cut, with a waist section, but it actually closes up pretty easily.

The only tricky thing with trashy Diva in general is that most of the dresses are dry clean only. Which can be an issue over here, where dry cleaning is expensive (for example SOL charges 30-50eur to clean a dress, and silk dresses will be over 50eur). I hang out my dresses to air after wear and “steam” them by hanging them in the bathroom when I shower. But, I *confess* I have washed quite many of them by hand and they have turned out fine, expect for one on which the colours ran a bit (which luckily does not show at all due to the pattern). My jersey knit dresses have even been washed in the machine on a gentle program without problems. BUT do bear in mind that clothes should always be cleaned according to their instructions, so I’m not going to recommend washing the dresses yourself even though it has worked for me.

Well, there you have the answers to the most asked TD-questions in a nutshell. So enough with that for now and time to let this new dress out in the strong sunshine!

Blue is one of those colours that go with a lot, and this dress was well paired with red shoes. I also happen to have shoes in both the same blue and the same white shade as in the dress . But this time I went for orange ones instead!

WARDROBE SHOPPING

You know the feeling when you haven't looked inside your closet in a while because you have one of those phases when you feel there's not going to be anything inside of it to wear anyway as weather and circumstances and schedules are making things difficult and you wish  you could just walk around in a black morph suit or so, always. But then you open the door anyway and ta-da! there's a bunch of stuff you had forgotten about. Kind of like shopping at your own place. Well, that happened to me and so I wore this knit dress I apparently owned.

I have no idea what brand the dress is really but my bolero is Trashy Diva, which I got on sale a little while ago.

And, suppose I must add, the bangs are not real but the clip on version.

BLUE, RED (AND A WHOLE LOT OF OTHER COLORS TOO)

Outfit snippet.

The dress is Trashy Diva. In silk, works just as well in winter, worn with a long coat, as it does in summer.

POM POMS AND ROLLS

Today we went to a glögg party (that would be mulled wine, glühwein and so on) as is the custom at this time of year. Because it's always fun to go a little funny I put on my pom pom brooch from Frollein von Sofa, which originally came as an accessory to a red turban of mine. I also made a hair do, which I feel I haven't in ages;  I've just been wearing my beret during the day and putting on hair pieces for all the shows I've done at night.

 
My hair has secretly been growing long enough to do almost anything with now. I had almost forgot how easy it was to roll it up into something nice, although for me, the biggest problem is seldom the back of my hair but the front - the last months I feel the hair around my far has been very odd and  not wanting to hang or fall nicely at all.

This hair do is a version of this rolled up-do with large pin curls, just rolled a little differently. It's a under ten minute do. (Or, it is if your hair is in the right mood and plays along so to say. Otherwise you might have to fetch a curling iron or so for easier rolling; curl each section together first and then roll and pin). No back combing or anything; you get some volume and height from the big rolls/curls you make.

The ear drops are vintage and the dress is Trashy Diva.

TRIPLE KNITS

It's on-off cold so I'm layering with on-off knits. Easy to add on, easy to take off.


The sweater is from Indiska, the dress the Jenny jersey knit from Trashy diva and the cardigan is an oldie. Socks and stockings from Lindex, if someone wants to know.

I need to get a new pair of boots for winter but so far no luck. Not too fancy but a little chunky and not too bulky but still graceful, not too shiny but not suede-like and not too high nor not too low on the leg and with just the right height on the heel, and warm and keep water out. And yes that shouldn't really be to hard but somehow it still is. Heh.

A little PS. for my Finnish readers. If you do any Christmas -or winter shoe- shopping online remember to check out, sign up and do it via my affiliate Ostohyvitys.fi - it's a win win situation (for you and me ;) Alennusta jokaisesta nettiostoksestasi Ostohyvityksestä. Siitä vaan sitten shoppailemaan!

And PS2. for everyone. There are worse problems than not finding the perfect winter boots though. And as we are in the season of spending why not donate a little something (or a lot, if you want and can) to those who need it. My Red Cross fundraising box is still up until the end of the year and can be found just on your right in the side bar. Or trough here: Red Cross donation
I am so happy to see so many have donated this year!

STREETCAR DRESS AND A UKULELE

Here we are on our way to my dad to celebrate Father's Day (which we obviously spend now and not in June over here), wearing plaid together. Since the father in this house is on the other side of the world working for the moment it was Grandfather's Day for us instead.

My sister gave me a ukulele for my birthday; I've wanted one for some time. My father also recently got one so Dag and I practiced a song to play on the uke together for him. "Together" you know. Pling plong.

My dress is the Streetcar dress from Trashy Diva and the shoes are old Minna Parikka's.