FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW : EASY TUESDAY

Day off! I'm having cheese cake /curd pudding with strawberry jam on the balcony. And it's warm!


Lulu is enjoying the sunshine next to me too.


Which means she's letting the kids' Easter Grass to grow in peace for a while. (But as you can see the cats have been there a bit already...)


The doorbell rang earlier and the mailman (or, woman actually) brought me these vintage ear studs - they will be nice to match with my vintage Dior necklace.
From Novella Bleu Vintage.

ANOTHER SMALL VICTORY

Yesterday we were fortunate enough to get some sun which I enjoyed with a small Sunday stroll outside. I noticed that the constant rains of last week which I - thank you very much - got to experience rather well and in detail in the harbor did bring a lot of good with them as most of the snow has melted by now. And it seems life has conquered after all (well yeah pretty much like every year) as, behold:

Our very first flowers are blooming!

And all you central Europeans and other lucky bastards that have been able to sit outside in parks and plain cardigans for a couple of months already can stop rolling your eyes, this is a big thing over here!


I would've tried to snap a more photographically correct picture of the crocus but I had such a terrible hangover headache that I could not keep my head down for more than a couple of seconds at the time.


Also, filled the home with fresh flowers and new plants for the balcony. This means tipped over vases, water on the piano and puke with flowers bits in it as my cats, Lulu in particular, can be real assholes when it comes to plants, but I still keep trying. And it will at least look nice a little while.


Busted!


Busted again!


Well these ones were at least speared over the night, so far so good...

AT HOME

The bright light shining in trough the windows (that still are waiting to be washed) at as late as six in the evening is a sign that spring has not only begun but h´been here a while already. The weather however disagrees.

As the light was rather nice at the same time as something rare occurred; the flat was almost tidy; I decided to take some pictures of home. There has actually not been that many since the renovation was finished.


I intended to write a bunch about tapestry, furniture and revamping items but you know what - I'll leave that to another time!

And yes, I still only have two cats, but they really do manage to be everywhere all at once.

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW : WEDNESDAY EVENING

I'm talking a little bit about shoes and posing in three favorite pairs in the latest number of Trendi magazine.


I've caught some sort of virus cold, giving me an annoying headache and making me terribly tired. Just as I had a few days off work and intended to do lots of stuff. Damn! Apart form a visit to the doctor and the store I've been resting at home and playing the piano with Lulu, mostly Satie.


I was feeling something fresh and spicy so I made us a nacho salad. With mixed green salad, beans, hot salsa, home made guacamole, sour cream, some cheddar and lots on nachos. For a vegan version skip the sour cream and the cheese, it works alright without. One can also change the beans to soy meat.


It really annoys me that many nothern bloggers have been whining on about spring this and spring that and how we all hope it will come soon for quite some time already. Well, I kind of do that too I'm afraid, a little at least. So; spring bla bla blah I got myself a springy little plant today.

STUFF I GOT AT HELSINKI VINTAGE

Pardon my French but I could not come up with anything more creative in the headline up there...

A table lamp for that corner specifically as it always lacked something. (As one can see form the picture, one thing it does not lack is cats.)


A little glass surfaced pinstriped 50's flower table, one of those you could see in my Helsinki Vintage post. I originally intended to put the lamp on it but it sat better on the other little table (which is bought form the same guy earlier btw), so maybe I will use this one as a flower stand instead; that's what it is intended for in the first place. Although right now it serves as kitty stand.


And a little basket. I have quite a lot of baskets and bowls lingering around at home, that tend to fill up with just whatever but bowls and baskets are quite easy finds and that my hands tend to grab. My sister said this one would at elast be really good for when I have three apples around but it actually only fit two.


I got Eddi a pair of 60's deadstock sandals. The brand is Fredrik which is also Eddi's name! They were a little bit too big though and he was not that thrilled about them. (Yet, he'll grow in to them.)


He was however very much more thrilled over the cheerleader suit I got from Americana (which looks surprisingly good on!) but a little disappointed to hear that I do not intend to wear it around town. One might catch it on stage at some point though...

BETTER IN BLACK

The weeks I do my early work shifts I still go for some version of my black uniform I wrote about several years ago. Quick, easy, rather incognito, but still stylish enough considering I get up a bit after five in the morning (or, rather: at night).

Black is the great disguise, a perfect way to cover tiredness, pluffiness and bad hairdays. Sometimes in more drastic ways, sometimes in more subtle. I know for some this might not work and colours and flair may do the trick instead, but I am better in black and it has to be lots of it. Especially when getting up early in the morning, having loaded a few ships already before the average office worker has had lunch, and, especially, like here, when having to go some place and be representable in the evening.

(Cat pics added for bonus comments.)


As you know from before my basic trick is to cover my hair with my beret, and make a few big rolls in front. Basically if your hair is not too messy or dirty you could skip the beret and just do a plain chingnon in the back of your hair as the curls in front will look nice enough.

For my hair in this one I rolled four curls, all in the same direction, and secured them with one pin in the middle.

Some highlighter, a good f foundation and lipstick does the trick on my weary face, but I think the most important is to do my eyebrows - I never leave the house without a few quick lines and a brush trough on them.

For my black look I also, always, do a strong eyeliner. Another easy face-saver is to cut a piece of old false eyelashes, about 1-1,5 cm in length and glue it in the outer corner of your eye. The small pieces are really simple and quick to apply, idiot safe to so say, and gives your eyes a totally different look - perfect cat eyes!

You may have noticed, at least I have, that most of my hint and tutorials always contains the words "easy" and "quick" - I like to be fancy, you know that, but I like to get away with as little effort as possible, unless the occasion is very special, then it doesn't matter. But my poiint is that you don't have to have all the time and skill in the world for a nice look!

The dress is an old knitted one from H&M. You've seen it in drawn sometimes in the very beginning of this blog.

Edit : OK; I have to add as you all seem to read the post this way - I do not look like this at five in the morning, of course not! I put on my black stuff yes - the "uniform" I refer and link to or a black dress- but come on, I work in the harbour, outside, no false lash bits or hair rolls... This is after work, when tired and having to go somewhere! But maybe one is not very good at expressing oneself late in the evening when having woken up some 18 hours earlier :)

CATS AND KITTENS AND FULL SKIRTS

The internet, oh, the internet. A never ending source of information. And inspiration! And - disinformation, crap and bullshit. A space to spend time well worth, and also waist it. A place of gain and ruin. Heaven and hell. Hallelujah!

But. Although I might spend a little too much time and money online from time to time, the internet is very useful for me. Often thanks to my Freelancer's Fashion Facebook page - and to all of you. Why? Because you help me find the stuff I want!(A desire and need most likely created by the internet in the first place, but hey, that's peanuts at this point).

The most acute Must Haves are stuff that I realize I can very well live without if I wait one week and decide in fact not to give in to the desire.

But sometimes again the quick compulsive need to buy a certain thing can turn out very well, and become a long lasting well used item; I am mostly referring to clothes here now, but this actually applies to about half of my tattoos as well.

The latest in this case was a kitten dress - a dress with kittens on it! Not spotted on the web actually, but in real life, on a girl. And then it struck me - what the hell? A kitten dress? Of course! How had I been able to live my whole life without one so far? So I asked her about the dress, she told me the brand name, didn't quite catch it, then forgot it. As you know, here's where the internet comes in handy. But my friend Google was not able to help this time. The game wasn't all lost at that point though - post it on the Facebook page and woah! - some moments later I have the link.

Ta-taa! Kitty dress found.

However, after thinking about it I for a while I decided the dress perhaps was a little bit too expensive considering all the other things I am in a totally and very desperate need of (yes) and considering the fact the the cut on the dress was nice but not that extraordinary _ I should perhaps not buy it after all. But, in the same time I also realized I really had to have a dress with small furry felines on it. Well, now I needed to get my hand on the fabric instead; which I eventually did (also trough the help of some followers), after first browsing hundreds of kitty fabrics on ebay.
In the end I did go for anohter fabric instead, with retro kitties on. Meow meow!

This one right here, on it's way to me now.

I'd love to turn it into a two piece dress, or perhaps a shirt and circle skirt. Or a shirt waist dress.

Hmmm...

Now of course, another question is; will I actually ever fix myself that kitty dress?Knowing me, those of you who do, might have your doubts.

So, a little poll:
A. I will get the two-piece dress done in time for summer
B. I will skip the original idea and go for an easier version, but get it done.
C. I will get the dress done in time for summer 2012
D. I will have the dress done by someone else (which will make it a very expensive kitty dress in the end)
-or-
E. The fabric will end up looking really good among the other fabrics that are waiting forever in my fabric box.

What do you think?


PS.The kitty dress I did not get was by Limb clothing and the kittens-fabric by Micheal Miller Fabrics (great fabrics!).

THE CAT AND THE SPARKLING SHOES

You know when you as a little girl couldn't dream of any more wonderful shoes than the red ruby slippers Dorothy had?

Although my own acute carvings for glittering shoes are long gone I did get myself a pair worthy of those Oz-tastic shoes; black velvet heels covered with small sparkly diamonds!(Yeah, yeah, real diamonds). Perfect for burlesque parties and for shows; one can never sparkle too much in stage.
I got these on sale at Halonen.

PREPARATIONS

I'm at work in Siberian weather loaing like hell until midnight, but yesterday and this morning I prepared a lot of things and put ourselves in the Christmas mood!

With a martini and some Sinatra we decorated our small Christmas tree last night.

It's actually the first Christmas tree I've had since I moved away from home a decade ago!

I usually pack a lot of my gifts in old newspapers - saving money, saving nature. Normally I go for the daily papers I've read at home, but this time I picked up some free chinese magazines in my local supermarket (apparently Tapiola is full of Chinese readers?). I make the cards out of lace-like cake paper or left over gift paper from last year.

If you have no idea of what gifts to give, a pretty bowl (from the flea market/super market/fancy store, however you like it) filled with fresh fruit would at least be appreciated by me.

I baked heaps of gingerbreads! Spelt gingerbreads with a hint of orange and another set with almonds.

Eddi wasn't totally happy with being dressed in my apron, having to mix the other dough. But he did enjoy eating it later on.

Saved some for ourselves, while the rest is meant to be decorated and given away.

The decorated ones turned out surprisingly ugly though. For a while I considered saying it was Eddi's kids who baked them. Disappointment. But well, I'm good at a lot of other things! And they do taste good.

I also gave myself a little Christmas present!I had already give up on receiving these before the holidays, but then the delivery boy arrived only minutes before I was on my way to work. Ave Maria was playing in hte background when I opened the parcel. It was a very beautiful moment.

And very beautiful shoes!It is however minus 20 C outside so I won't be wearing these beauties for some time. Well, except for indoors.

Bonus cat-in-the-box!

How are your Holiday preparations coming along?

Ok, Edit : it's almost minus thirty, not 'just' twenty.