PLAID AND STRIPED

I just can't believe it's mid-Nove,ber already! When did this year go by? Again?

I just realized today it's even starting to be alright to wish for snow, which I kind of do and kind of don't, or at least to expect it (you know, when it does come it will stay aroudn for months).

It feels colder day by day and I've taken my warmer jackets back to use.

I have no idea what to put on my feet though, as all my 'cold-weather shoes' are rather worn out. I have however re-discovered these old boots of mine form years back, as I dug the out of the closet to use at the Mexican themed party at Halloween. One of those shoes with a rather high heel that you still can walk around comfortably for hours in. But these are not of much use for when the snow comes around... what then my friends, what then.

The wool skirt if made for me a few years ago by Olivia Rouge and the jacket is from Mod Cloth.

ONE SCARF, ONE BERET, FIVE MINUTES, SIX LOOKS

(Here's the baby as part of the outfit once again as it needed a dash of colour. You gotta do what you gotta do.)

Yesterday I kept a lecture on vintage inspired styles and styling. My thesis being, as you may know from here, that you can do very much with very little; manage to add a flair of certain styles or eras wearing pretty much anything as long as you acessorize it right; it is how you wear it and what you wear it with. Do note that dressing inspired by something is not the same thing as dressing up to something; it is not re-creating an outfit form a certain era, just playing with the vibes from it.

I planned to demonstrate this subtly during my talk by changing a few details in my outfit, which I wanted to be rather neutral, both retro and timeless, for it to work. But as I went on babbling I kind of forgot to do it properly and on time.

So I will go for it here instead - sort of 20'ish onwards! Five minutes, five more looks:

There you have it, easy as whoah!

The blouse and skirt are both from Tara Starlet. I folded the waist band down in half as it rises too high to look good on me.

And no, my child is not really in the pic just to balance out the soft shades with his red suit. But it sounded like a more fun and less shouty of a reason didn't it?

DRESS REVIVAL

A good thing about going trough old blog posts is that you can re-dioscover items in your wardrobe that you had forgot about. At least in mine, as I tend to go for items periodically. And some items at the bottom of my drawers in the bed room manage to stay pretty well hidden. Also, making my way to the closet / mini storage room in the study (which has sort of become the place where the rest of my belonings go to die.) past all the paper work and burledsque bags and amost-there scene costumes is a task I have been avoiding. Stuff are hidden and forgotten in there. (Or, rather, I've been avoiding the task to clean the mess in front of the closet but I guess I will just be forced to do so, well, soon. Ish.)

But today as I browsed back I was reminded of some pieces and I went for an exact remake of a combo I wore three and a half years ago the last time.

Dag got to replace Lulu in the pictures though. And the fringe is faux, as you know. Updated version.

Oh, oh, and I have to add, and the beret is also another, a new one. Which is sort of a big thing in some dimension somewhere as the original one had been with me for half of my life. Do you have any accessory or other wearable item you've had for a very very long time?

I have lots of outfits I do in the same way several times and as many combinations I've only wore once. This one is not that special per se but I think I haven't even worn this dress since I did the post above, in ehrm, 2009...

Maybe that would be a sign to get rid of this dress but I had kept it with the thought it'd be good as a maternity dress.

I did not use it when I was pregnant. 

I think I forgot that I had thought of it or something. Well whatevs. Next time around then.

But browsing trough again, turns out I have worn the dress once since spring 2009, here, the whole shabadang in 2010. Well yey! And another yey! Because that just gave me a "new" jacket too; I had forgotten about the one in the picture. (The first world club cheers.)

So I made my way trough the study of horrors and pluck out the jacket - perfect for the cold nasty season.

Thank you, me.

Btw here's how the posing continued. Someone needs more attention than the blog and the camera.

Of course.

But. Why was I going trough old posts?
I do that sometimes, the blog works sort of as a diary for me. This time however it was to pick out pictures for a lecture on vintage inspired style and styling I am holding tonight at Arbis. At 18:05 in the library, if interested.

STRIPED & VERY CASUAL

I'm too busy with a lot of things + baby to post anything else so I'm just outfit spamming you.
Here's something super casual and very comfy. Alhtough I thinkI got the jeans in one size too big so I might have to sell these and get myself a smaller pair. Which although the extra hazzle is pretty alright when you think about it.

TIKI OCTOBER

I popped by the re-launch of Kokomo tonight and all the Tiki drinks were free. Free tiki drinks! I could however not enjoy myself any complimentary tropical alcoholic beverages as I was also doing a show. You can't always have everything I guess. Not even when it comes to tiki drinks (damn it).

This is the autumn version of dressing "tropical"; if it's too cold for bare legs or very thin tights it's best just to add a big splash of colour all over.

The dress is Trashy Diva, the necklace a leftover from my hippiedays I bought the summer I was in Bali and yes, you must have noticed, the bag matches my fridge which means it is m i n t  g r e e n.
(There's lots of mint green in the shops right now. Almost too much. It was hard to believe it would ever come to this.)


Oh, and a little PS. here at the end;
my weekly give away at my blog's  FB page this week -ending Sunday as usual- is for a set of eco false lashes, with ecologic-and vegan friendly adhesive! 5 cent per contester goes to charity (to organizations in the US.) Enter via my site or straight trough here: http://bit.ly/PonDjs

RED, PURPLE AND PLAID

It's almost disgusting I know, but yes – I got myself one of the new Trashy Diva dresses.

MORE CAPES FOR THE PEOPLE!

Beret & cape by Fiona Timantti.
Photo by Saara Salmi.

BLACK + CAPE

Today I dressed like a mime with a skirt, wearing a cape.

Wasn't that sentence just totally Hel-looks?

MAKING OLD SHOES SHINE : THE BLINGY VERSION

It's the official party season. (Which for me is more of a work season; no time for parties.) All display windows ad billboards fill up with black and gold and red and glittery sparkly things for the season. Well, it's Christmas all year round in many ways for me (not just the lights here and there) as the amount of sparkly stuff  I nowadays have to drape myself in is, well, a lot. For all the obvious reasons.

I was blinging up an old pair of shoes for a show, but, this is of course something you can do without having to strut with them on stage in. You may remember my tip from some years back about attaching jewellery to a pair of heels? Another quick and easy way to bling a pair of shoes up is to use some rhinestones and glue and TA-DA, instant party shoes!

I normally use a fabric glue that is still elastic when it hardens but as the shoes I decided to pimp up are made of (faux) patent leather I used hot glue and pre-glued rhinestones instead. Because theses are for a themed act I put the bling on to resemble daisies. (I also made a glitter surface on the sole but we'll get back to that in another post.)

Be sure to clean the shoes before you start. The smaller rhinestones were pre-glued and came in lines (from Tiger)  which made this an easy task. Otherwise I use a chrystal pen or a pair of tweezers to grab and place the pieces.  Remember to be quick if you work with hot glue as it dries instantly - for bigger stones it's easy but for smaller ones that you might want to add in a formation (a line like here) I'd suggest another kind of glue that takes a little longer to dry. Haberdashery stores also sell rhinestones on a string, which would work nicely for this - the price per meter is high but you will not need so much for a pair of heels so it's doable.

And then it's just on with the heels and off to shine and sparkle!

(and yes I know, my working space is a mess as I, in my usual manner, am working on too many things at once...)

THE ATTEMPTS OF PHOTOGRAPHING A SUN DRESS

I came back from some business in town. And as I for once because of that was somewhat dressed up -it's around +30C here now and I mostly walk around in some old tiny gym shorts and a floppy tie top here on the farm - I thought it was time for an outfit post.

Me: I’m wearing a fancy-schamncy sundress so maybe you could take some blogphotos?

Eddi: Ok sure, why not.

Me: but no no, keep the camera the other way, portrait!

Eddi: Ok

But then one of the  cats desperately craved attention.

Me: take some pics anyway, cats equals blogpoints hehe

But then a big maddafakking spider appear along my hem

Eddi: I’m still taking pictures

Me: no, stop, stop!

(The actual photo of me freaking out when noticing it won’t make it here though, as I don’t want to flash my underwear to the whole internet.)

Then Dag dropped the watering can on my foot and I lost a chip of my toe nail at the root (more painful than you’d think).

Eddi: click click

Then Dag also wanted to pose for photos.

But in the end we kind of managed to get pictures of the dress as well.

Which is, if you wonder, an Ivana Helsinki dress.

(And which I, however bubblegum coloured and nice it may be, am thinking of perhaps selling next weekend at our Raspberry Fields second hand market -where YOU should come and shop!)

THE THIN FULL CIRCLE SKIRT

 I made this skirt a week or two after Dag was born out of a piece of some leftover fabric, the kind you  you can buy by the kilo over  at the fabric shop (Eddi refereed to it as "the hipster fabric" at first.). It's a full circle skirt with an elastic waist for easy and comfy wear and of course, with huge pockets for all my small stuff I seem to be carrying around everywhere. As I naturally was bigger all over at that moment it started to feel a bit loose and floppy on after some time and I had then left it at the farm to wait for happier days as whatever-wear. But now with the constant super-sweaty weather and with the limited amount of clothes I've brought along I re-discovered it. The skirt is rather heavenly to wear; light, flowing and cool. And it goes with pretty much any coloured shoes color you could event think of!

(I got some skirt-friendly cooling wind to go along)

Plus, heels and lipstick make so many things a little better!
Alas, it's status changed back into city-skirt.

The shoes are old Vagabonds, and so are the belt and the shirt; old.

LOOKING BACK ON A SKIRT

Somebody apparently turned a switch and changed summer into autumn the other day. A bit sad, because I was looking forward to one last summer roadtrip this weekend; we're driving far up north east for a show at a rockabilly weekender. Well. I am however glad that I during the warm weeks came around wearing many of my clothes that otherwise don't make it out that much -this skirt is one of my favourites! I've had it for many years already; I picked it up at our family cabin in southern Carelia when I was there with my sister in 2008. It had been left there as whatever-wear.

I have some vague memories of my mother wearing it with wedges. Or then I've seen her do so in photos.

 

I wore it quite much once it was back with me to town! These are from 2008.

Here's me with Ina in 2009.

I almost forgot I got my hair that platinum! At this time it also had the baby pink sections in it. That was 2010.  I still dream about cotton candy hair every now and then. But then again i also kind of like having a lot of hair on my head again, and not just thin silvery locks...

The good thing with wrap-y items is that they fits you trough a few sizes... here's me on holiday wrapping my baby bump under the skirt. In early 2012.



And here's the same skirt going strong in 2014 still! I have had to mend it a few times as it once got stuck in a bike wheel and got torn and has grown thin in a few spots, I've ironed some supporting fabric on  the inside.

A SWEATPANTS SKIRT AND... MORE CHECKS!

I made myself a skirt out of a soft and stretchy sweatpants fabric that probably was meant for sport gear or so as it has a somewhat shiny surface. Well, shiny surface = fancy skirt so this is one of those 'HAH! I fooled the universe'-pieces of clothing.
Or, almost, because then the universe fooled me a little bit by making me lazy and putting in an elastic waist band instead of a zipper & hook/button fastening when in fact I did not cut the skirt with that much extra to make it easily pulled over my hip . So it is not so comfy to get into but comfy once it's on. I figured as I only have to squeeze twice per day to get in and out of it, or perhaps four times if I got to the gym, I can live with it.

The skirt is cut in something between a half circle and a 3/4  circle skirt. The shoes are old Minna Parikka's and yes, I am wearing checks again because that is clearly the theme for this autumn!

TRIPLE CHECKS AND HALLOWEENISH WEATHER

Even though it has been pretty nice during the days lately evenings have turned stormy, dark and spooky - just like they should this time of year!

Apart from a few days a bit back it has however still been rather warm, so the vintage Pendleton jacket I finally got around getting myself (after thinking about one such for years) really did come in handy and has been of much use.  I think I've always had issues with the so called mid-season wear, everything  most jackets I've had have usually been too warm or too cold, but this time around not!

To take my double checks from last week up a notch I added a checked skirt for triple checks. Autumn, you know (although,  the checks on the skirt are pretty subtle.) Scarfs and checks and coloured tights that just call for huge hot cups of tea.
And some red wine, not to forget.

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.