Sunday 11 May 2014

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!

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


vintage 60's dressing gown robe pink floral rollers scaf cup roses burberry brit mother's mother
Cup of coffee #2 in rollers and vintage 60's dressing gown

pink roses mother's vintage
Tiny, hot pink roses

Sunday 13 April 2014

My Fabulous Pink Kitchen

vintage 50's housewife apron pink kitchen baking dress red high heels turquoise

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.

Ikea kitchen pink vintage
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.

vintage pink kitchen 50's florida tray Pihlgren Ritola Tapettitalo Kihlaruusu


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.

vintage fifities kitchen pihlgren ritola tapettitalo Kihlaruusu


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.

Vintage kitchen 50's mid-century valance Louekari marimekko kippis


Vintage kitchen pink valance marimekko louekari kippis mid-century


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.

Friday 4 April 2014

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

vintage knitting pattern turquoise red nails bakelite bracelet yarn 50's fifties


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.

vintage knitting pattern 50's fifties
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!

Targer quick-to-knit cardigan 1950's knitting pattern


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.

vintage knitting pattern 1950's fifties target quick-to-knit cardigan turquoise
Popcorn!

Friday 21 March 2014

Lorelei

50's red dress winter black boots Cherise Lorelei fashion repro vintage

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.

50's red dress winter black boots Cherise Lorelei fashion repro vintage
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?

50's red dress winter black boots Cherise Lorelei fashion repro vintage

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...

Friday 7 March 2014

Walk-in Wardrobe Revamp

Pihlgren Ritola wallpaper tapetti





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:

pine dresser wardrobe




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!

Pihlgren Ritola wallpaper tapetti green vihreƤ
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:

Pihjlgren Ritola tapetti wallpaper green vihreƤ wardrobe vintage Tapettitalo


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

Saturday 1 March 2014

A Quick Hi

Just a quick hi, to let all you lovely readers know that I'm still alive. Apologies for the long pause, but it was a rather trying fall and winter, and many of my hobbies, blogging included, just fell by the wayside for a bit. However, now that it seems spring is here and I feel I have regained my joie de vivre, you can expect some lovely new blog posts in the near future. See you soon!