Letters in the mail

 My real mailbox has been busy theese weeks and I will tell you the reasons. 
First our swedish ebay site had an auction with short time left on their homepage that I couldn't resist: I bought this octopus necklace for less than a dollar. I will use it for a project, maybe a necklace or a fascinator...oh please give me suggestions!!!

I was the first to leave a comment on the Insomniac's Attic and for that she rewarded me with a gift and sended it all the way from Canada. A sheer long, full width petticoat!!! How generous isn't that? The quality is amazing and it flows around the legs. I fell in love with it instantly. 

Look at the lovely details! It's a bit crinkly after the package but i think that is perfect. I will use it as a skirt and as a petticoat. These petticoats comes in several colours and can be found at the Insomniacs beautiful webstore. She sells lots of beautiful vintage interior things with a darker twist.

On top of that she added this lovely scull decoration. I hung it at my hall mirror right away. Memento Mori says the text on the head. The back is covered with silver glitter. 

There are lot's of Shabby chic people that write the text Carpe Diem on their walls....I'm thinking of writing Memento Mori instead. It's like Carpe Diem but more underlined, serious. That you shouldn't take life for granted and use your life to something useful. The life as a living is just a second compared to the time of death. Don't waste it!

There has also been lovely letters and postcards left in my mailbox. Oh It's like Christmas day every day! I have sent a few letters myself and have lots of letters to answer this weekend. I've joined a wonderful little group of letter writers. I have missed the excitement of having a letter in the mail and sending letters to dear friends. The letters I've been writing so far has tend to be long and rich of words. This is how I am; Give me a pencil and a paper and I will poop words (there is a swedish word for that...don't know the english one). It's a little harder to write the blog actually, words doesn't flow exactly. And if I speak, god I begin every sentence three times and speak very slow and prefer to not speak at all, if I'm not very eager to tell my opinion though. I long for the weekend now, a crackling fire in the stove, writing a bunch of letters in the light of a paraffin lamp an owl howling outside in the woods......

Maybe it's the movie we saw that put me in this cosy mood. I've just seen The woman in black, on dvd. It totally freaked me out and it was a wonderful movie. The perfect classical ghost story. I recommend it to all of you who haven't seen it.

Preparations for halloween started!

It's a dull rainy sunday. Perfect for indoor activities like spending time by the computor and planning coming Halloween. I have alway wanted a full size skeleton , but they are so expensive. I found this one at Potterybarn with a fair price. The freight cost is shameless but the total is cheaper than a perfect anatomical one.

I'm sure it will be used all the year around. Wouldn't he look dashing with a fly and a top hat?

Got to say thank you Iman for saying this!

She hit the ruler on the designers hand and gave her a good lesson.

goth is not trashy!

And I agree with the other things she said. 

Something edible and a Bat fit reeboot

Just around the corner, there is nature filled with lots of nice things to eat. Healthy nutricious food. Thanks to 

the rainy summer there is lots of fungus to pick. The amount of chantarelles is huge this year, the places were they grow are kept as big secrets for everyone else. If you get a tip of a chantarelle place you have received a generous gift.

Something that not many knows is that puffballs are edible and in the right and in the right condition they are a delicacy. I found a place with an enormous amount of puffballs, unfortunately they weren't in the right condition. They must be completely white on the inside and steady (like a mushroom). These were white but spongy. Served best as peeled, sliced and fried in a pan with a little olive oil.

In swedish we have a word for beautiful places, called wild strawberry spot (but in swedish). It's also a place were wild strawberries grow. I have a place were the ground in the wood is filled with berries. We picked a large cup of wild strawberries yesterday. If you mash them with icing sugar you get the most tasty icing for a cake you can eat. I put them in the freezer for baking later.

Bat fit reeboot

So it's time to make a reebot of the bat fit. Have I reach any goals? Frankly dear readers; no I haven't. I've been kind of stuck at the same weight during the whole summer. Back to work I can feel it's easier to eat less. 

Another goal is to exercise. Unfortunately I can't run at the moment. I have pain in the lower back and hips and when I tried to run every other day at the beginning of the vacation I wasn't almost able to walk the other day. So I have to do softer things like walking and cycling (that hurts too). I will visit the local bath to try swimming..... Yes I have booked a visit at the nurse .

A short walk of 40 minutes in nice surroundings can make me a little happier and healthier.

The third goal is one that I have achieved better results with; my mood. I will not talk about how bad it has been here, that's my own buisness. I feeling better and better for every day. I'm more confident at my work (even if I still feel as a big fake sometimes) and I can make a joke of stupid things. I'm still very scared making other people dissapointed though.

Weekend off

So I'm back from the festival this weekend. It was a very calm event, lots of drunk and happy people and and families. I even could think of bring my own kids to the event. Like my expectations, Eluveite and Epica delivered the best gigs at the festival in my biased view. 

Actually I'm going to wright about the weekend before when we went back to the cottage and visited an airshow.

The airshow is amazing. We stood a whole day with the faces turned upwards. Lots of jet planes and The swedish airforce contributed with almost all their jet planes, made in Sweden!

On the picture below is "Catwalk".

Lots of hearts in the air that day.

Before we had to go home on sunday, we took the boat over to the island to pick blueberries. This is the lovely beach I've been talking about.

View from the beach

This is how the island looked all over. Blueberries everywhere. We picked 10L in half an hour.

The hill in the back is a grave for the ancient vikings. 

 As we were completely alone and sweaty we took a bath in the lake before rowing back.

Tomorrow is monday and  back to work again. I had a nice slow start of two weeks after the vacation so it's time to getting serious (boring). 

At the festival

Waiting for Eluveite. Something to look forward to I think. During the wait I amuse myself by poking at lots of gorgeus people.

Nails

I bought lose nails for 75%off. Very cheap. So the first time in my life I have fake glue on nails too long to be practical. A glossy black from make up store with a cheap grey metallic lining.

Tonight were going to a festival. Metal and punk is on the menu. I wish it was more punk and not so much death metal. I'm not fond of watching three red painted guys growling on a stage, but there will be lots of other nice things to see, friends for example.

The professors homework assignment: Purses and bags

It's time for the professors monthly homework assignment, whohoo! This time it's about telling about ones purses and bags. Since I think a purse is far to tiny to carry all my stuff I show you the most frequently used handbags.

Oh, I have very recently showed you this one. My newly bought handbag from Restyle. This handbag is used daily, both to work and weekends. I love it; its very practical and in a nice quality. Like all my handbags it's have a tendency to hide stuff for me. The vanishing bag that Johan calls them.

So the other bags I'm going to show are some of my vintage collection. These below are my auntiebags. They are stiff and sturdy. The black one can carry my wallet, phone and a lipstick, nothing more. It fits perfect to my black brass studded sandals from the 40's. I bought the brown one at my neighbours flea market for a bargain, I don't think I have used it.

This is my bamboo collection. The little one is the first vintage handbag I bought long ago. It's not in the best condition and the handles are broken. I haven't figured out a good way to mend them. The real bamboo bag was found in a suburb fleamarket in London, on the back there are large chinese letters. I use this one with my black 60's Suzy Wong dress.

And last; the Croco collection. The round one are very flat, cant carry much in this one either, requires lots of planning if I will use it. The open croco basket is a nice one to use, but not in crowds with pick pockets.

So that was all. I have other handbags that I havent taking photografs of and bags that I've tucked a long way in the wardrobe and never use, but I have problems to part with stuff. One thing I really need though is a practical and good looking backpack, I can use when bicycling or walking to my work.

I always have my two cellphones, purse and keys with me. Almost always a hairspray, a little umbrella, some makeup, a comb, hairpins or snood and a lot of receipts that prevents me to find the important stuff.

I have had a beautiful weekend in our cottage. One of the days we went to a aircraft festival with amazing airplanes. I will make a post of that later.

Repurposed polo shirt, tutorial

With a strictly limited clothes budget you need to think more than twice when you throw clothes or buy new. Johan handed me a polo shirt that had been damaged under the arms by deodorant. I saved it for almost a year, thinking of doing something for myself because the shirt was in good shape exept for the stains. I managed to sew two pieces of it, a shrug and a skirt.

~

Med strängt reglerad klädbugdet så måste man tänka många gånger om innan man slänger något eller köper nytt. Johan gav mig en polotröja som hade blivit förstörd av deodorant under armarna. Jag sparade den nästan i ett år och funderade över att göra något med den ibland eftersom tröjan var i bra skick bortsett från fläckarna. Jag lyckades få ihop till två plagg, en bolero och en kjol.

 I was stupid when cutting of the stains and made a cut vertical over the front piece but stopped over the chest. When I made the skirt the seam in front looked unecessary, so to give it a purpose I made a gathering in the bottom of it. The hem of the shirt is actually the waistband of the skirt. I trimmed the hem of the skirt with ruffled lace.

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Jag var bra dum när jag började klippa i den för jag började klippa rakt över magen men besinnade mig halvvägs. När jag sedan gjorde kjolen så fick den en söm på framsidan som såg malplacerad ut, så genom att rynka sömmen lite längst ner så fick den ett syfte. Fållen på tröjan blev linningen på kjolen. Nedre kanten på kjolen kantades med lätt rynkad spets.

This is the back view of the pieces you can see that the sides of the hem is where the armpits was cut off so the skirt has a lower back wich looks nice, especially with the lace trim.

The picture below shows how I cut the shirt, following the dotted lines. The turtleneck is cut off to a boat neckline, the arms and shoulder was cut off to narrow the shoulders a bit and then I sew on the arms again.

~

Så här ser plaggen ut på backsidan. Man kan se på sidsömmarna på kjolen var armhålorna satt, det gör att kjolen är kortare back, vilket ser ok ut, särskilt med spetsen påsydd. Bilden nedan visar hur jag har klippt i tröjan. Polokragen är bortklippt och en båtkrage syddes. Ärmar och axlar klipptes bort och så sydde jag dit ärmarna igen lite längre in för att passa mig.

 The picture below shows the gathering detail. I'm quite pleased how it turned out. I use to sew short skirts of old tshirts to wear under tunic blouses.

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Bilden nedan visar rynkningen på framsidan. Jag är ganska så nöjd med resultatet. Annars brukar jag göra kjolar av gamla tshirts för att ha under tunikor.

Today is Johans birthday and I have been so lazy to get a decent gift for him. As we are going to renovate the bathroom I bought a washstand at a second hand store, well it was kind of a gift to both of us and to make the day a little special I bought some takeaway and took him to see the Dark knight rises. I would highly recommend it. Anne Hathaway was a great catwoman.

~

Idag är det Johans födelsedag och jag har varit jättedålig på att fixa en riktig present till honom. Eftersom vi ska renovera badrummet så köpte jag en kommod på en secondhand, så det fick bli en gemensam present till oss. För att göra dagen till något speciellt så köpte vi hämtmat och sen bjöd jag på nya Batman filmen. Den kan jag verkligen rekommendera. Anne Hathaway är en fantastisk catwoman.

This is how the old washstand looks like. The top has a lid were you was supposed to hide the washtray and the cupboard was supposed to hide the potty. I will paint it in a water resistant colour, black probably and put a basin on top of it and make a hole for the sewer. 

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Så här ser kommoden ut. Toppen är ett lock som en gång gömde ett handfat och skåpet gömde pottan. Kommoden ska målas i vattenresistent färg, förmodligen svart och så ska jag köpa ett handfat och ställa uppepå och göra hål för avlopp.