It's a Start!

Hello everyone!

Long time, no see. Another year has passed without any blog posts. Shame on me. I will try to do better. Anyway, must start again somewhere and that somewhere is a quick look at some of the things I bought at Vapriikki Vintage 2016. I know, I know, it was two months ago, but like I said, I have to start somewhere.

First of all, jewellery:

Top left are a couple of plastic brooches and a metal sweater guard in the shape of two hats. All of these were actually given to me by a friend. I'm especially pleased with the pink flamingo! Top right is an absolutely insanely huge cocktail ring bought from the lovely Leena at Vintage Garden. The  four lower pairs of earrings in the lower right picture I also bought from Leena. The top ones I bought from a friend. I have a wedding coming up this spring and I was thinking of wearing the cocktail ring and the aurora borealis earrings as they sort of match. I also have a brooch with pink AB stones, so I can really pile on the bling!

All of the wooden jewellery in the lower right picture are from one seller. The jewellery is Aarikka-inspired and was made by Ibero. There are two brooches, two pairs of huge dangly earrings and a rather unusual double necklace; I have no idea what to wear it with apart from the fail-safe all black outfit.

Then I bought these two darling dresses:

The first one is fluffy nylon and is home-made and from the mid-50s, I'd say. The second one is cotton and by Kaisu Heikkilä, early 60s. It seems practically unworn. And look at those colours! 

Now, you may ask "why are there no outfit photos with these two dresses?" and I'll tell you why: they don't fit (yet). Yes, I have been piling on the pounds this last year thanks to the eh fatso -diet, rich in chocolate and fatty carbs. Normally, I never buy dresses I can't fit into, but I keep telling myself these dresses will fit me once I shed this fat suit I'm currently still wearing. I hope. Fingers crossed.

I did manage to take one outfit photo on day two of Vapriikki Vintage (silly me forgot to take one on the first day, oops).

Corduroy dress - late 50s vintage

Black pumps - late 40s vintage

Not dead

So, it's been exactly one year since my last post and as you can see, I'm not dead. Some of this blogs followers have already discovered me on Instagram, I'm chuffed to see. Anyway, you might be wondering what I have been up to for a year that has had me so busy that I haven't had time or energy to write new blog posts. Well, here's the story in the form of captioned pictures. Enjoy!

In spring 2014, I had my first solo article published in Golden Vintage magazine. It was about Finel vintage enamel.

During the summer I wrote and had published my second article, this time it was about a friends vintage handbag collection.

At the beginning of July was Suvi-Vintage, where I once again took to the stage in the Fintage vintage fashion show, this time in early 60s styling, dress and accessories.

Pic by Atelieri O. Haapala. 

 In late summer I had my first pinup-style photo shoot with Pin-Up Helsinki. Here is a quick snap of my derriere the brilliant photographer Jirina Alanko took on my mobile. Styling by Fiona Timantti.

In early autumn I was given the opportunity to take part in the making of a short film called The Shadow Seamstress. It was directed by Nick Gillespie and will shortly have it's international premiere! This is a pic of me in costume (and possibly in character), taken before filming.

The Maid: Spitting in your tea since 1919.

 

Happy Mother's Day!

 This morning I was greeted by a cup of sweet coffee and chocolate bisquits in bed and wonderfull presents from Junior, Peanut and Hubby. I also got a beautiful potted rose, that I'm going to plant in our garden later this spring. This promises to be a simply lovely Mother's Day!

The boys and Hubby bought me Burberry Brit Rhythm. The cup is vintage 50's, bought from London a year ago.

Cup of coffee #2 in rollers and vintage 60's dressing gown

Tiny, hot pink roses

My Fabulous Pink Kitchen

A little while back I finally got around to doing something I had been planning for ages: paint the kitchen cupboards pink. And didn't it turn out fantastic! I have been thinking of having a vintage-inspired pink tea party...

The original plan was to paint the entire cupboard door pink, but that would have meant taking them of the cabinets and taking them to the garage and then painting first one side and after it had dries the other and it became an overwhelming and very daunting task. But then I thought, hey, why not just paint the middle bit. And so I did.

This is how it looked before.

The doors are made of painted MDF and therefore didn't need to be sanded or primed in any particular way. I just gave them a thorough wipe down using a rag and a surface washing liquid specifically designed for the job.

I also took the opportunity to completely get rid of the door above the stove so that the spice shelves could be used for display. I also lined the shelves with leftovers from the Pihlgren & Ritola wallpaper from the opposite wall. It's called "Kihlaruusu", BTW.

I also put up some valances I sewed from Marimekko's "Kippis"-fabric. It has a lovely mid-century feel, even though it was designed by Maria Louekari in 2008.

Marimekko has been creeping in to my decorating schemes more often now that my taste has slightly moved away from the mid-fifties and gone towards the later fifties/early sixties and mid-century modern. I find that the simpler patterns and bolder colours suit my taste better.

Knit one, purl two, knit...wait...What??

A couple of weeks ago I started my first real knitting project. Yup, that's right, the first. I had learnt to knit at school when I was around ten, but it never really "caught on". I mean, I did knit the obligatory scarf and dolly blanket back then, but as far as I was concerned, knitting wasn't something I did. I would drool over vintage knitting patterns and items made with vintage patterns, but that was it. It always seemed like too much faff to even begin a project.

But when I was looking at vintage patterns a while back, I suddenly realised "Hey, I could do that. How hard can it be?" Bahahaaa. No but seriously, it's not hard. There are only a limited number of things you can do with a knitting needle and yarn and they can all be learnt.

Easy peasy...

With me it was always a lack of motivation that stopped me from beginning. I wanted to knit something I'd actually use, like a cute vintage cardi. This meant I'd look at patterns calling for a thin cotton yarn and teeny-tiny needles. Sometimes, I'd even get as far as casting on and knitting a few rows. But then...couldn't ...quite...get...further. And stopped. I know quite a few knitters and it always bugged me that I wasn't one of them. It was like a club I wanted to join, but couldn't quite muster up the inspiration to fill out the application form, if you get my meaning.

The beginning of a.....err...Nope, can't remember.

Luckily, like I mentioned, I know knitters and they guided me towards a suitable pattern. And I found one on Subversive Femme's blog: The Target 'Quick-To-Knit' Cardigan from the 50's. The size is right (no alterations to width needed), the yarn and needles are a reasonable size ( which means I'll make quick progress despite my slow knitting speed), it has some flourishes (which will be a nice challenge) and it's QUICK-TO-KNIT. Perfect!

So this is what I've been doing with some of my free time. Only change I'm making is that mine will be shorter so that it will go nicely with full skirts as well. I've already finished the back and am currently knitting the left front. Look, I even did popcorn! The whole popcorn-border-bit took some figuring out to begin with but it looks so cool that it was definitely worth it. Anyway, I'll show you how it turns out once I'm finished.

Popcorn!

Lorelei

So  a week ago spring had taken a few steps back, although it looked like it had already come for a moment. Nope, winter wasn't ready to loosen its grip. So more snow, icy wind and freezing temperatures it was. On the upside, the boys had a ball playing in the snow, of which there has been very little during the winter. And I was able to wear one of my favourite dresses at least one more time before putting it away for the summer.

Icy wind. Nice.

The dress is Lorelei by Cherise (seamstress, designer and all-around great gal), who, by the way, has her own adorable blog Vintage Follies. The dress was part of her A/W 2012 collection. It has it all: full hem, nipped waist and Peter Pan collar. It's made from a lovely medium thickness cotton-rayon blend textured fabric, which is just perfect for fall and winter. To finish off, there are four black cut-glass buttons. I mean, what more could you ask for?

I wore it with my trusty black beret, black leather gloves and a pair of vintage Clark's ankle boots. Now, as it was rather cold, I naturally wore a jacket over it, but I don't have a picture of that, for some reason...

Walk-in Wardrobe Revamp

This is a little revamp I did last summer but only now got around to post. Remember my Tiffany Blue Bedroom post? Well, our bedroom has a walk-in wardrobe (one of the few things I insisted on when we built the house). It was dreary. I know it's not a place where I spend a lot of time but that's no reason, in my opinion, not to make it pretty.

Since the two long walls are taken up by shelves and a rail and the other short wall being basically all mirror, there is really only the far wall I can do anything to and most of it is covered by a chest of drawers.

This is the view that greeted me daily:

A plain white wall with a pine chest. Nice.

It just so happened, that I had found this short roll of gorgeous vintage wallpaper at a flea market. And it just so happened there was enough for the visible part of the wall. Hooray!

I don't know what it is, but I'm in love with this wallpaper! It kind of reminds me of the wallpaper in my maternal grandmothers house in Austria...I have a suspicion that it's by Pihlgren& Ritola, but I have yet to make sure. Will report back when I know.

Then a lick of sunny yellow paint on the pine dresser and this was the result:

Cute, no? Now every morning I'm greeted by a bit of sunshine.