SOME THINGS I'VE COME ACROSS LATELY

You know, come across as in bought.

A bamboo tray found in an antique strore.


A mint condition bag from Pretty Damn Cute.

With a complimentary mirror inside.


And last but not least-
-a 1958 Blaupunkt radio Cabinet!
It also has a built-in but removable record player, but we haven't fixed the electricity chords to see if it works yet.


It serves as a kitsch-y liquor cabinet as well!

We found this at an antique store out of town; Fasaani.We went there only looking for "something small and absolutely no bigger furniture as it will soon get crowded at home". Now this piece was not exactly small, but we just couldn't leave it there.

Even though the piece has a few decades of tobacco smoke impregnated into it Lulu does no seem to mind. I have had to clean it quite a bit though.

I GOT A NEW OLD DRESS TODAY

Do you know why I have a label called "The lazy thrifter gets lucky"?
That's because I seldom have to put any effort in to doing great finds, as they are mostly handed over to me (well that plus I get lucky in the internet :)


Today my mom came to help me clean out a closet in the flat still filled with my grandfather's books (plenty enough to fill a small town library. Well, at least the WWII section...) and brought along a mint condition day dress that was originally my grandmother's but which she didn't wear and which my mom didn't fit in to and now gave up on after twenty ears of waiting. A button down dress in thin soft cotton that worked very well on a hot day like today.

Keep up the good work fate!

BAGS BAGS BAGS

I get lucky with bags. Always.
If I go to a thrift store or flea market or wherever and find nothing of interest I still always find a couple of good bags. I am like the mountain when it comes to bags and purses, they go all Muhammed and come to me. (I'm also really good at metaphores don't you think?)

Last week I wrote about newly found shoes, this week it's about newly found or received bags. (They also happen to go very well with the new shoes, all of them).

This bag is a new favorite of mine, I think it's just amazing! Stumbled upon it on a quick pop-by at UFF one day at town. I'm in love with it's details.


My grandparents recently moved out of their flat (this might have a connection with my mint green Smeg to be *hint hint*) and my grandmother handed me this bag she'd dug out of her closet when Eddi and I stopped by for coffee. You know all like "oh hey btw here you go, have this" and I go "well yes please". Yes please indeed! (The polka dot pencil skirt is made for me by Olivia Rouge.)


This hand made beautiful feathered clutch is a gift from LouLou Bontemps. Isn't is pretty? You may remember me mentioning her purses earlier here.

(The velvet evening gown is from the thirties, also an 'I am the mountain thing' as it was just handed to me. You've seen it on me in our Atelieri Haapala Halloween portait.)

I WANT TO RIDE MY BICYCLE I WANT TO RIDE MY BIKE

In some matters I am the master of un-accomplishmentness (is that even a word?) - I was about to take my bike down to the bike cellar in my building for it's winter sleep a long time ago, but I was caught off guard by the snow in November. And the damn snow has stayed on the ground ever since! Not that that's any reason not to tuck the bike in there, but since the damage is sort of done already I have just let other things go first. Alas, the bike's still out there.
What a sad view from my window. Poor little rusting bastard.


Well, even if I'm complaining about all of the snow I am sort of enjoying it too. But I'm still waiting rather eagerly for spring. And if you look at it from the bright side and lie a little bit to yourself it will seem like spring is just around the corner, summer around the next... I crave for warmer days, lighter clothing and - riding my bike!



Which I will do in this darling dress:

I found this vintage dress in spring-like colours with a pattern of biking girls and boys, roses and bike tires on it when I popped by at sale my friend threw some days ago. Otherwise pretty perfect, but I will turn the sleeve in to 1950's style short cap sleeves and make pockets for the fluffy skirt with what's left of the sleeves. It will be great!

Bicycle!

THE LAZY THRIFTER GOT LUCKY

Here's some of the things I picked up a couple of weekends ago at this elderly relative of mine.
About a fifth of it. (Yes, this is now the brag-blog.)

A 1950's suit (the pencil skirt being exactly my size, what luck!), leather gloves, hat and bag. Well the bag is actually from Hoochie Mama Jane, I traded some of the gloves I got for it.


An early sixties satin coctail gown, a beaded evening bag with gemstone fastening and long gloves.

The thing is, I went back there the other day for some more. She called me (or actually my grandmother, who called me, but that's details schmetails) that she still and some shoes and accessories she wanted to get rid off. The lazy thrifter gets lucky indeed.

Unfortunately the shoes were too big but I brought them to Hoochie Mama Jane. I'll bring some vintage dresses there in the near future too and Irja has a lot of other nice stuff there already so why not pop by!

STEP BY STEP...

I guess most of you younger readers will be speared the immediate association of adding "ooh baby..." to the headline. Hehe. (Needless to say, I was never a girl to like those kinds of bands btw.) Well anyway, the dress is Trashy Diva and the slip vintage (one of many things I picked up last weekend), the rest from here and there.

CANDY SUNDAY

I have a bag I refer to as my ice cream bag. It's the colour. It makes me think of ice cream. So does my pink cardigan.

So dressed like this I felt like a bowl of ice cream (vanilla, strawberry licorice sauce. And some pistachio ice cream too, underneath. Not that I really like licorice sauce on ice cream. But anyway). Or Fazer's French pastilles in my grandmothers porcelain jar from when I was a kid, since as you know I like to dress like candy from time to time. And what a candy Sunday I had!

First I went to an elderly relative of mine who was wealthy and into fashion in the 50's and 60's and collected hers and her aunts old clothing she wanted to get rid of. Stuff you'd kill me to get your hands on I tell you - a 30's long evening gown in velvet, an amazing 50's satin brocade cocktail dress, a promenade suit with the perfect fit in mint condition plus some more dresses and skirts. (Yes I will twist the knife even deeper and add some photos eventually.)

Afterwards I met up with one of my sisters and my parents for a late birthday celebration; we had some cakes and pies and you name it at a café in a 18th century villa in a park just outside of town. Nice.

To top it all off I had marzipan and champagne for dinner.
As I said, candy Sunday.

(For those who wonder; the skirt is thrifted, the cardigan from Gina and the bag from one of the shoe shops in Kamppi.)

I WANTED TO COME UP WITH SOME SMART HEADLINE BUT I DIDN'T

Some time ago I wrote about the advantages of revamping a piece of clothing so it becomes more wearable. But as great an idea it may be to reach for the scissors, do think twice - I did a small closet clean out and cursed my 17 old hippie ass for destroying a lot of fine clothing; making high waists low, changing the shape of skirts, and worst of all, drawing with this awful decoration paste on some pieces making them totally unwearable for someone who does no longer spend the days burning incense listening to, ehrm, goa trance.

After crying blood for a little while it was however time to get on with some cutting, as I am wiser now than ten years ago (amen! to that). My gradmother recently gave me her hand made foot-long dress that hasn't been worn for a couple of decades. It's ultra thin and beautifully flowing, so for a while it felt like a shame to cut it. But hey, if no one wears it the way it is, why hesitate? After scrweing up and cutting it off too much and then managing to save it again, it turned into something that might become my favorite new summer dress - so unbelievably light to wear, with such a lovely collar and what best, the ugly-pretty pattern makes it go along with my yellow, purple, blue green and pink shoes and sandals! (Or red ones for contrast, like now, together with the belt. No need to mention black shoes since they go with everything anyway but yeah those too). Now that's what I call a versatile dress!


As for the hair, I did a mixture of these two hairdo's (my number 3 and 4). The vintage bow comb is from Hoochie Mama Jane.

Psst. I'm featured as a vintage style muse this week on Debutante Clothing (where also the most fabulous and funny vintage dress ever was featured too)!
www.debutanteclothing.com

HOOCHIE MAMA JANE

Kallio is the best part of town.

In other words, here's where I'll be tomorrow:





Hoochie Mama Jane will probably be one of the smallest vintage stores you'll ever visit, but it still fits an amazing lot of wonderful things. Apart from hand picked vintage items from here and there and everywhere it also has some hand made accessories and stationery, as well as Tyra Therman's burlesque-ish creations!

The owner is a friend of mine, who you could earlier spot at Ansa Vintage.
I hepled out with the graphic design for this one.
Anyway, the opening party is tomorrow, starting at 12! Vaasankatu 10 in Kallio.
Let's see how many can fit in at once shall we? Wohoo and oh yeah!

KICK OFF, KIND OF

I'm starting to get this feeling that some of you, and sometimes me too, might go all nauseous if I mention the word "spring" or "floral" during this month one more time (not to mention pastels, right?). But you see, living in a city 841,4 kilometers from the arctic circle means it's dark and shitty here a big part of the year, especially now with the global warming and it's warmer winters with little snow to light it up, just sogginess and rain. So now that we're were half-way trough March the countdown for spring has definitely begun for my part and I took a little false start to summer by wearing the the old romper I found at our summer house last year. Of course, I had to wear it with an extra knit and my knee-long jacket outside, so I couldn't really celebrate spring kick off yet. But I guess I'm at least one step closer!


I noticed two things with rompers/jumpsuits;
One- I'd never wear a dress this short. But it feels totally different when the little garment has legs. Strange huh?
Two - the jumpsuit is really not the most practical piece of clothing. You have to get all undressed when you want to pee :/

(You know what? It's snowing now goddammit. Weather - me 1-0. As usual).

WEDNESDAY

I'm quite hopeless, I know. I went for a bit of Christmas shopping the other day and ended up doing some thrifting finds for myself instead. I came home with this woolen pencil skirt (my explanation to self: nice and warm for this time of year) and leather bag (explanation to self: had to get since it was in such mint condition).


Skirt & Bag - thrifted (well obviously, just mentioned it there above...)
Cardigan - Lucky13; a gift from mom some Christmases ago
Shoes - the same old 67 You's as always

Btw, the only good this about climate change is, ummm, well, there is none, but if there ever were (you want to look at the bright side of life right?) it'd be be the fact that it is dry enough here in December for me to still wear shoes like this!

(Even though just as I was walking outside, thinking of this, it started to snow. Just a little bit, in a nice way. My feet and shoes survived : )