The smell of smoke

Happy x-mas sales shopping everybody! Christmas was nice and I survived the long days of work leading up to the holiday. At the sales I've only bought myself some yarn and knitting needles and I've started on a new pair of leg warmers. It's been years since I last knitted, and then I didn't really knit anything more complicated than...leg warmers. But you gotta start somewhere, right?

Knitting seems like an nice and stay-warm-under-a-blanket hobby, unlike sewing where you got to get partly undressed every time you're trying your item on, and right now I want to stay warm because out flat is feeling very cold at the moment. For a very interesting reason;

A week ago Mr. Kitten and I went to bed around half past ten in the evening. Roughly an hour later we woke up to the very sureal sound of the fire alarm in the stairway outside our flat door. We could smell something burning, so I grabbed some clothes and my phone and we went outside to see what was going on. There was fire engine outside the house and other residents in pyjamas and wintercoats. We couldn't see any flames or smoke, but were told that there was a fire in the storgage department of our basement, almost directly under our flat...

More fire trucks arrived and hoses were dragged across the snowy lawn and smoke-divers were making their way down into the basement. Around this time the basement window broke or was broken and smoke started pouring out, lot's of it. At this point I was wondering if I should have tried to rescue my computer and camera and thinking things like will all my clothes get damaged from smoke and so on. But, after about an hour the fire was put out and our flat was safe, but too smokey for us to be allowed back in. Finally, at half past one we got to go back into our flats where we did our best to air out the smell of smoke and get some sleep. What a night!


The stairway still smells of smoke, but luckily our flat stayed pretty smoke free so the smell is very faint in here. The fire broke out directly under the flat wall-to-wall to ours, and something must have been damaged as the heating isn't working in the room closest...And in every other room it's freezing as well. Everything in out storage cage is covered in soot and the plastic covering our garden chair cusions has melted. We had mostly camping and skiing equipment in this storage, some of it still needs to be checked for damages...But we are safe.

I wish you a very safe and happy new year! (Don't forget to get home-insurance and fire alarms if you haven't got any!) My new year's eve will be spent and my cousins wedding. See you in 2010!

December 17:th

I'm back from a well deserved long weekend away. Mr. Kitten drove our RV down to Aura on Saturday where we danced the night away to a fabulous big band. Really great music, made me wanna learn to jive and lindy hop and all sorts. I wore my new(=second hand) checked shirt, but with wide black trousers and not a skirt.

The next day we drove to Turku and spent the following two days walking around shopping centres and flea-markets. I didn't really buy much, just a pile of old photos that I may try to scan at some point, a simple top, two slips and a skirt that was way to big for me, which I'll try to alter. And a nice, almost cat shaped candle holder.

At work we're coming up to the busiest time of the year, and I'll pretty much be working non-stop until x-mas eve. Sigh. Oh, well it's only a week out of my life when I will have no life. Maybe I'll survive. Have a lovely holiday everyone if you don't hear from me in a while...!

Tagged!

Sweet Bettie Booh passed this little award over to me;


Thank you! Now I'm suppoed to pass this on to 10 of my favourite blogs, but I'm a little short on time (and terrible at making up my mind) so I'll just do the questions that came along with it. Feel free to do the same if you like! Answers should only be one word.


1.Where is your phone? Here

2.Your hair? Two-toned

3.Your Mother? Caring

4.Your Father? Bearded

5.Your favourite food? Asian

6.Your dream last night? Stressed

7.Your favourite drink? Hot Chocolade

8.Your dream/goal? Happy

9.What room are you in? Hobby

10.Your hobby? Creative

11.Your fear? Driving

12.Where do you want to be in six years? House

13.Where were you last night? Home

14.Something that you’re not? Drugged

15.Muffins? Please!

16.Wishlist item? Time

17.Where did you grow up? Finland

18.Last thing you did? Hoovered

19.What are you wearing? Red

20.Your TV? Seldom

21.Your pets? Plants

22.Friends? Some

23.Your life? Beginning

24.Your mood? Even

25.Missing someone? Him

26.Vehicle? Bike

27.Something you’re not wearing? Skiing boots

28.Your favourite store? Flea-market

29.Your favourite colour? Red

30.When was the last time you laughed? Today

31.The last time you cried? Weeks

32.Your best friend? Boyfriend

33.One place that I go to over and over? Work

34.Facebook? Booring

35.Favourite place to eat? Kitchen

No post without a picture on this blog-so here's a pretty plate I paid 10 cents for and a pretty red Mariskooli-imitation bowl that I bought recently;


This weekend plus monday and tuesday me and Mr Kitten are planning on doing a trip in our motor home, we may go to Turku. Anybody know any good places to find vintage? Now I need to keep packing...

A little bit of light

Yey, I've seen the sun two days in a row now! While it was light I also got a picture of the new skirt I made.

The top is also new - second hand. My new project is making myself an apron, a bit like the pink one in this image from sovintagepatterns.com. Only mine will be blue and white.


This saturday I'm going to my work x-mas party, and I'm just about to start pin-curling my hair. Hopefully it'll still look good on saturday...Have a nice weekend everybody!

Hair

I've been doing alot of pin-curls lately, and thought I'd share some of the results;


And yesterday my hair looked like this when I went to my friends tupperware-party;



I looked through some older pic's of my pin-curl attempts, and noticed they weren't always that good. Thankfully, I feel I'm getting a little bit better at getting them too look okay now...

I'm not very keen on the constant darkness that seems to be the default weather at the moment. Apart from the effect on my mood, it's too dark to take any decent pictures! So it might take a while before I can photograph my latest finished sewing project...

The rise and fall of inspiration

November. The darkest time of the year. My motivation and inspiration level has been quite low lately. It's been too dark to take any decent pictures and I've been too uninspired to sew anything. Thoughts like "why sew something new when I haven't got any occasion to wear it" and "it's too cold for a dress like that" have been in the back of my mind. But now, I think I might have gotten out of it. I hope. Because of a huge piece of dark red fabric in my shelf ...I'm thinking something along these lines;

Images from vintagefashionlibrary.com, stopstaringclothing.com and pinupgirlclothing.com

I might also make a pair of high waisted trousers if there's enuogh material, or try my had at making a shirt/jacket! Or maybe that piece of fabric will still be there next year. What do you do when your mind starts asking "why bother sewing/being creative/dressing up?

And more shoes

Oh dear, I've ordered yet another pair of shoes, all because Ellos sent me a 50% off cupon. So I thought I'd have a look through their selection, and the only products I liked were shoes. And why not get myself a good quality pair of shoes - half price? 89,90 € was the normal price but I'll only have to pay about 47 € with shipping. Not bad. I plan to use these as my dancing shoes, if the fit me...Hush puppies is the make.

Speaking of dancing, Mr. Kitten managed to get the heating working in the RV, so we went dancing to a place about 100 km away from here, and then slept in the RV. Luxury I tell you, not having to drive all the way home after the dance. However, I did kind of wake up in the middle of the night thinking the heating was off and that I was freezing and trapped in my sleeping bag and so on, until I woke up enough to realize everything was fine and I had been imagining things...

Up's and down's

Today was a bit of a down day, as we discovered that the heating (among other things) in our newly accuired caravan wasn't working properly. This means that we won't be able to go on any trips and sleep in the car (unless we wanna freeze) until we get it fixed. Which might not take too long, but, the next weekend off might take til next year with x-mas coming up and all. And I was so looking forward to going away this weekend, we were gonna go dancing and see a new town, maybe do some shopping...Oh, well.

6/11/2009

This is my new second-hand coat along with my new shoes.

And here's the result of my latest sewing project;

I might wear it for our upcoming work x-mas party.

And in case anyone was wondering, this is what I wore yesterday when I went grocery-shopping.

And finally, Mr Kitten and I put my old rusty car aside and bought this second hand beauty;

No more hotel nights, when we've got our own little house with us...!

P.s. That dress is still for sale...until monday!

New home wanted!

Ok, I've decided to sell the dress. As one of my readers noted, the pattern is a bit big on me (thanks, I knew there was something else bothering me apart from the colour!).

Right, here are the measuremets of the dress laying flat;
bust 48 cm
waist 38 cm
hip 50 cm
neck to waist 41 cm
waist to hem 70 cm

Hand-made buttons.

The rip at the back, shouldn't be too hard to fix.

Side buttoning.

So, if anyone is interested, you can leave a bid for the dress in the comments. I'll start the bidding at 5 euros plus postage, (which depends on how far away you are from Finland). The dress weighs about 450 grams. Alternatively, I might consider trading the dress for something else, in case you've got something you think would fit me... You've got one week! Bidding will end next monday at 9 pm finnish time. Good luck!

Shoe madness

I love shoes. Lately, I've been compensating for the years when I only wore flats by getting myself some proper heels. Which isn't that easy when you're a european size 35. Anyway, I found these somewhat 40's inspired heels second hand and paid 9 euros for them. They were, not surprisingly, slightly too big but that's what gel cusions are for right?


My latest purchase cost me 10 euros and came from Veljekset Keskinen. I didn't realize how thin the heel is until I got home, but I have actually been able to walk quite effortlessly in them anyway. Until my feet start hurting from the unnatural angle they are forced into...Pretty and comfortable rarely go together.


And tomorrow I'll be picking up the pair I've been waiting for for over a week now; the perfect reds!
I've been dreaming about these ever since I saw Ranna wear a similar pair (or maybe they're the same even?). They come from Brandos.fi and they look just right, but I won't know for sure until tomorrow when I get my hands on these babies for real. *Fingers crossed* 60 euros including shipping will make these the most expensive shoes I've ever bought...

But enough shoes already, I also got a belt from Keskinens;


The fabric it's lying on is my new skirt, which I made yesterday. In a minute I'm gonna start on the matching top. I wonder if the shoes will match...

Yes or go?

I found this home made dress in a charity shop a few weeks ago. I think it might even be from the 30's or 40's? Anyway, I've got a few issues with it. Firstly, it's too big (or I'm too small?). Secondly, it's not really my colour, I have nothing that goes with it, I'm not sure I go with it. And last, it has a small rip on the back, which could easily be fixed, but what's the point if I'm not gonna wear it?

So what do you think? Should I alter it and most likely leave it hanging in my closet for years (until I find some shoes/whatever that goes with it, if I ever do) or should I try and sell it to someone who would love it and wear it? I'm guessing it's about a size 38, but I'd be happy to take some measurements if anybody is interested...Let me know!

Something for fall

One of the biggest problems fashionwise living up here in the north is to stay warm during the cold parts of the year and still feel stylish. Unfortunately pretty and practical seldom go together...A problem (a least for me) which I am trying hard to solve.

In order to wear these pretty but not very warm shoes, I came up with the idea to make myself some spats. Basically a piece of cloth (or three per foot sewn together) to keep my feet warm and cosy. Or at least warmer. I used a piece of elastic underneath to keep in place, and velcro to open and close. Very simple. I might do a few more in different fabrics and colours, maybe with buttons going up the side, for some other semi-warm shoes I happen to own...

Staying dry and looking good can also be tricky. Lucky for me, I found this stripey rain-cape in a charity shop not too long ago. Now I just need it to rain!

I've got more ideas on how to stay warm and look good, but I haven't put all of them into practice yet. I'll show you once I get that far...If you got any tips or tricks you use yourself you are welcome to share!

Finally, here's my latest attempt at pincurls;

This time around I went to work for three days looking like this, and got many compliments and even more enquiries as to what special occasion was coming up which required this hairstyle...It appears that the people Iwork with only make an effort for special occasions, so the looks I got when I said that I just felt like it were a bit pussled. I guess I've taken my first steps down the road of being "the strange one that dresses up/does her hair for no reason". Oh, well, as I'm already on that road, why not go full throthle? On the third day with this hair, I put on some red lipstick...

From curtain to petticoat

On tuesday and wednesday I made a petticoat from two old lace curtains I bought from a charity shop for 2 euros each. I wanted my skirt to be about 60 cm long so I cut the curtains into strips 22 cm wide (20 cm + 1 cm on each side to be sewn). With this width I would need 3 rows of 20 cm strips. Here's one of the curtains folded in half, the strip meant for the bottom part of the petticoat already cut out. The rest of the strips I cut horisontally.

I measured the bottom strips and got 7,6 m, then I put together the next row of sprips and made it half the lenght; 3,8 metres. The top row in turn was half the lenght again; 1,9 metres.

I sewed all the pieces of each row together to make 3 rings of fabric. I then pinned together the middle of the back of the top row, with the middle of the back on the middle row. Then I did the middle of the front of both layers, then the middles of the fabric in between and kept going like this until I had a manageable amount of fabric pinned together for sewing. As one layer is twice the length of the other, the pinning will look something like this;

Of course I couldn't be bothered to put the pins this close to each other anywhere else but on the elastic I used for the waist, but maybe you get the idea? The rest of the fabric (loops sticking up) I wrinkled by hand as I sewed.

After pinning together the two strips at the top, I sewed them together. The I did the same thing with the bottom layer, pinning middle to middle, middle to middle and finally sewing the layers together. Here's the result;

And after this I pinned the top layer to the elastic (as seen above) and carefully zig-zagged it to the elastic, stretching it a little as I went. I used zig-zag here because I want the thread to "stretch" when the elastic stretches and not snap and make the whole thing come undone.

Here's the finished petticoat;


I chose the curtain I did beacause of the ready made ruffles, which meand that I didn't have to line the full 7,6 metres, phew. And it looks pretty cute too!

Now this is not the most poufy petticoat imaginable, but with longer strips it would have been. It all depends on how much fabric you wanna use (or how long your curtains are)! I'm pretty happy with the result though, as I have got a cotton even less poufy petticoat, that I can combine with this one should I require more pouf. And that's how I made my first petticoat! Feel free to ask if there's anything that left you wondering!

What I wore

Today I've been wearing this (minus the beret, as I see no point in wearing a hat indoors).


And when I visited my parents during the weekend I wore this outfit;

The jacket is new, from H&M and I really like it. It's a bit short however, especially with low cut jeans. Not a fan of getting a cold midriff, I could really use some high waisted trousers...

What I was doing all last week

This is my latest project, a full bell skirted dress complete with cape for those cool summer nights.


It's pretty much all my own creation, from pattern to finished product. And this is why it took me days to finish - I'm not that good at making patterns yet...



I've also been working on another sewing project, which I'll show you once it's finished. AND I've cut my hair, but that's another story...

And the winner is...

...the very talented Lady Thirty!

Congratulations!

(Hope it's okay that I borrowed the pic!)

Thank you all who participated, and thanks for the movie tips, I've seen some of them and others I will have to try and see now that I've heard your recommendations!

Giveaway-time!

Kitten in love has reached 100 posts! In honour of this event, I'm giving away this pretty little bow-pin;

I think it's silver (the box has a jewelers tag on it) and it measures about 3 cm across and 1,5 cm from top to bottom so it's a little smaller than in the picture. With it comes a cute little toilet bag into which I might put even more goodies if I happen to come across something suitable.


If you want a chance to win, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post and just to make this a bit more fun, share with us the name of a film or two that you like because they wear loads of pretty clothes in it, or beacuse it has a nice story or something along those lines...Don't forget to leave the address to you blog or your e-mail in the comment!

If you want to have an even better chance of winning, you can mention the giveaway on you own blog and link back to me, but make sure you let me know!

Now then, you can post until 8 pm (Kitten time) on Sunday the 4th of October when I will draw a name out of a hat, and the following Monday I will present you with the lucky winner!

Good luck!

A flirt with the 60's

Before I got into the 40's and 50's inspired style, I liked the 60's and 70's. One reason for this was that I happened to come across some of my parents old clothes in the attic of our house. Needless to say, they didn't stay in the attic. At the age of 13-14 I started to wear my mum's, (and dad's!) old flared jeans and other items to school, and finally began to feel like I had a style that I liked. Around this age is when I started sewing a bit more as well, however most of my projects from back then are still in storage somewhere, unfinished, because I did not yet have the skills to make things the way I wanted...

Anyway, a few years passed, I moved abroad and dressed more mainstream until I moved back to Finland, broke up with my boyfriend at the time and found many of the wonderful blogs that I now follow on a daily basis. My retro fashion interest returned, now focused a couple of decades earlier than before, until this;

I found a fantastic 60's dress with a gold pattern and no way was I leaving this beauty in the charity shop. Cost me 3 euros.

A couple of weeks later I found a pair of matching gold shoes. So I have decided that it is silly of me to limit myself to any certained time period, when there is so much fun to be had with a broader wardrobe...! We'll see what the future holds!

# 97

My latest find cost me 30 euros. But, I just thought about the chance of me ever finding a clock as cool as this one ever again (highly unlikely) and got it, even though it's a bit chipped and is missing the key to wind it up with. However, Mr Kitten did have a look so I'm hoping he has some idea on how to get this baby ticking.

On the subject of time, did you know that I am fast approaching my 100:th post on this blog? Yup, time flies...So now I'm thinking I should do something to celebrate, like, a giveaway perhaps? Sound good?