Nightie, nightie!

There's this charity shop in town that I've been to a few times, and the last time I went there I decided to dig through the box of undergarments and pyamas and the like. Down at the bottom, overlooked all the previous times I'd been there, was a treasure of vintage nighties and underskirts and more. Check out this one in blue;

Similar thing but in pink;

This one looked 30's at first but upon closer inspection I was unsure due to the quality of the seams. It's actually light blue and white stripey, not as white as it appears here;

There was a skin coloured slip that was even my size;

And a white one that was a bit too big, but still wearable, I think...

And then there were these funny looking underpants that I'll probably cut up and make something else out of, the lace was pretty nice.

I also got a couple of half slips, plain ones, for like 50 cent a piece. And this oversized pyama top in leopard print! I intend to make something else out of this one too, I'm just not too sure what it's gonna be yet, any suggestions? Right now I'm off for a shower and a quick tidy-up of the flat, my mum's coming over in about an hour!

Who needs H&M when you've got thrifting?

A few post down I'm craving a leopard top from h&m, and I mean craving like this kitten rarely does. But I contained myself and went to a fleamarket instead. And voilà! Check out what I found for € 2,50! I think I may survive without the h&m version now, even though it has more of a vintage feel to it. Although, if it turns up in the sales who knows...

I've been sewing a lot lately. Making up my own patterns and fiddling around with tiny details. When I thought the satin gloves in the shop were to expensive I made my own, and what a difference they can make to an outfit! I don't think this is the last time these babies turn up here.

I also could not get this image out of my head. Do you spot it? The muff. I had one that I played with when I was a kid, from gradma's attic it was, and since I saw this pic I wanted to find it. But no luck so far, so I had to make one of those as well.

Worn here with vintage hat, fur collar and mum's old coat. But, I think the muff is a bit too wide, so I might take it in a little, when I have time.

Waiting to go out

I've been sewing a lot lately. I've made a pair of gloves and a muff which I have yet to photograph, and I finished this dress I mentioned a while back.

Wearing it here with the new shoes. I've also been round to a couple of second hand shops and made some great finds. First up a skirt that I might shorten a bit, I do like the fabric as it's a bit like thick linen or something.

I also found this checked red and white little blouse...

...And also a black and white checked shirt, teamed here with a cute handbag I got in the sale. I had it with me to the theatre last week when we went to see "Kiss me, Kate" the musical performed in Finnish. The handbag had such a theatre feel to it so I had to!

I've also been buying earring lately. The red ones I found in Tampere at the shopping centre we went to on the way back from Milan. The wooden ones I got in the sale, and I'm thinking about wearing them tonight at my bf's belated work x-mas party that I'll be crashing in about an hour...My bf liked my leopard dress so much that he requested that I'd wear it tonight, and so I will. Hope you all have a nice weekend!

Shoes and Handbags

When I was about seven I was quite a girly girl, you know, pinks and purples and Barbies and princess dresses. Then I grew up a little and became more practical and wore blues and jeans and trainers and didn't care that much about my appearance. This has all changed, starting a while before I moved away from home and became addicted to second hand shopping. It keeps getting worse - or better, depending on what side you stand on. I have, for example, introduced make-up, skirts, shoes and handbags into my life.

When I moved back from England I had about 4-5 handbags and maybe 6-7 pairs of shoes. I had started to wear descret make-up for work back in Kent, but couldn't be bothered at the cleaning job when I got back here. Funnily enough, it was the cleaning job and wearing a boring uniform that really set of the feminime period I've got going on at the moment. I needed to feel feminime, like a woman and not a genderless cleaning robot. So now I wear not-so-descret make-up for work, and my collection of shoes and handbags is growing at an alarming rate...

These two bags cost me 5 € altogether. Not too bad considering they look unused.

Ah, and these shoes, another fiver! Too bad they don't keep my feet very warm though. Something for spring then.

And here we are, my latest find, in size 3! A little bit tight but oh so pretty and just what I've been looking for, and only 3 €! Dark brown leather, mmm. Notice that I'm lifting the shoe with my toes...Which brings me to the next part of this post: The challenge!

The Freelancer tagged me a while back to reveal seven facts about myself, so I'm gonna give it a go. Right.

1. As seen above, I go around picking things up with my feet. I think I developed this skill as a result of being too lazy to bend down when something needed picking up.

2. I am also pretty good at balancing on one leg, this comes from years of training, specifically from balancing on one foot whilst srubbing the other in the shower...Needless to say, my feet are very nice and soft from this habit.

3. I have got a very odd looking mole on my stomach, or the mole in itself is not so weird, it's the lack of pigmentation around it. A white circle with a mole in the middle. No swimsuit modelling career for me.

4. I've also got a spot on the top of my head where my skin has no pigment, this means that the hair growing on that spot is also without pigment. I have a blond spot. You can see it quite well a few posts down where I'm showing off a hairdo...

5. Even though I've become more feminime I'm still a very practical and comfortable person. I prioritise being warm and dry before looking good, however I am working on finding stuff that combines practical with pretty, it's surprisingly difficult.

6. Relating to no. 6 -being practical. I don't actually wear that many of the outfits that I show here. Right now I'm wearing a hoodie and some sweatpants...But I do dress up for going out. And for the fun of it. I've been dressing up since I was a little kid, and found it funny that there is a whole community out there that does the same thing, even in real life. In other words, I'm really glad I found all these inspirational blogs out there to share my obsession with. :)

7. This weeks stats for this blog is 84 unique visitors. Only one of these visits is from somebody I know in real life - my boyfriend. I have only told ONE of my friends about this little hobby, and I don't think she reads it. Not very often at least. I am not exactly sure why I haven't told anybody either. Maybe I'm embarrassed, I'm not the same person that I was when we were close. Anyway, I find it hard to believe that they'd be that interrested in my latest fleamarket finds. So. Is there really any point? Do your friends and family know about your blog?

Ok, so now I should tag seven people. Or break the rules! Yes! Instead of tagging I challenge you to answer the question about whether or not you've told people about your blog (if you have one) and why/why not! Cause I'm curious.

H&M wishlist

I just paid for a remote for my new camera, so in a few days I'll be able to do proper outfit shots and show you all my latest purchases that might be of interest.

In other news, I finally got the new H&M catalogue after it had been sent to my old address, and today, they sent me an email with a link to this:

My love for leo-prints lives on, plus I really like the retro feel of the shirt model. Some other favourites;

And another leoprint;

Yesterday I also spotted these on Syster Retro and got a bit crazy. I then spent several hours working on a pattern to make my own gloves and I will continue working on that pattern tonight. I have a thing about making stuff myself, especially if I can't find or afford whatever it is I need. Ah, if shoemaking wasn't so tricky I would have started making my own shoes aswell...

Back from Milan

Hello everybody! I've been back from Milan for a few days now, and I've finally got round to putting up some pics from the trip. Most of them taken by me and my brand new used canon eos 350D! I'm so pleased with my new toy, and my bf was also quite impressed by the picture quality. Alright, so here we go. We arrived in Milan late afternoon, checked in at the hotel and started to explore the city.

The first thing we wanted to see was the Sfortza Castle and the pretty fountain in front of it. At 5 o'clock when it got dark the castle lit up and there was music and a little light show.

There was a tram covered in lights driving around.

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, the shopping centre right outside the duomo, where all the fancy shops like Prada, Gucci etc were situated. But, everything was closed. Come on, it was new years eve! But yes really, only a few small and expensive looking restaurants were open.

The Duomo at night, with a large flower and light covered christmastree in front of it. By this time in the evening it was snowing wet snow and it was pretty cold aswell. The lack of open places to go made us return to the hotel for drinks at the bar and then bed. The thought of going back out there in the cold to see the fireworks, and then try to somehow get back to the hotel after the underground stopped running didn't appeal. So we fell asleep. No wonder, we did get up at 3 that morning...

The following day, after a breakfast consisting mainly of biscuits and tiny bits of white bread, we returned to the duomo to have a look inside. It was amazing, and huge, and full of details.

After seeing the inside we took a lift up and saw it from above, even more details and a pretty good view over the city as well.

Here I am, showing off my new glasses on top of the duomo.

The view from the side of the cathedral.

As all the shop were still closed, we went for a walk in the park. As you can see, it wasn't exactly a suntrip we were on.

I said hi to Napoleon.

And we had dinner in a fancy restaurant. And a fast food place or two, as I mentioned before, most places were closed. But I managed to fulfill my goals of eating a real italian pizza - made and served in italy, as well as a plate of real italian pasta.

The following night we got up at three, again, and caught a bus back to the airport. When we landed in Finland we had breakfast and spent the following 5 hours or so in the ideapark shopping centre outside tampere. I bought some earrings, socks and stockings, underwear from Gina Tricot, and from Eurokangas a piece of fake fur out of which I intend to make a muff to warm my hands in. Fur -both real and fake- seemed to be all the rage among the 90% of russian passengers who flew out to Milan on the same plane as us. Just in case you wondered.

All in all I'm very pleased with the trip, although Milan is probably much nicer in the summer and when places are open. But still, I got to fulfill my shopping desires back in ideapark, so I'm not complaining. I hope you've all had a good start to the new year!