CELEBRATING

Today I'll do what most around here does - put on my graduation cap and head out to the parks in downtown Helsinki for a champagne picnic to celebrate the first of May.

But we are also celebrating another thing here: The Freelancer's Fashion Blog now has over 2,000 followers trough blogger and 1,000 likes on my Facebook page! Which means nice things will happen here for you in the month to come, starting real soon!

But first I'll head out in the sunshine to enjoy myself - you all have a Grat May Day! Glada Vappen!

RED, PISTACHIO GREEN AND SEÑORITAS

I have a new wonderfully full and puffy skirt with lovely señoritas on it. We have a carnival-sort-of- weekend coming up here and I think my new skirt could be quite a suitable part of it!

Somethign sweet happened yesterday; I was walking down the street like this when a 60-something lady in black with huge pearls around her neck stopped me to compliment on my outfit.

My jacket is vintage as you know and the blouse -that's the rather well hidden pistachio green here, hehe- is by Bettie Page Clothing.

...but what I guess you are more interested in is the skirt, which is made for me by BooBooKitty Couture! BooBoo Kitty Couture offers a bespoke made to measure service of vintage inspired clothing with lots of pretty and fun fabrics to choose from (you know I just might have to get myself something with shirtless cowboys on, hmmm...) A ready to wear collection is also being planned.

You can find out more about BooBoo Kitty on Facebook and trough her blog.

BURLESQUE: PICTURES; NEWS AND CHANGES

Some time ago Vera De Vil I had the pleasure of doing an oriental inspired shoot with Kaylin Idora while she was here from New Orelans!


You can view the whole set here.

And, speaking of New Orelans, as some of you know I will be going there this summer! Trahsy Diva live shopping, yey!

I will also visit Austin and Miami, at least. But most of all; Las Vegas! As many of you also know already that is beacuse The Itty-Bitty Tease Cabaret will be performing at the Burlesque Hall of Fame in June!

...and whilst speaking of burlesque again, the Itty-Bitty Tease has some new times ahead after Vegas and it's official today: you can read about the changes in our Bitty-blog!


But, back to the pictures; Tinker Bell also did a rather magical outdoor shoot with Kaylin, the set can be seen here.

50's WEEKEND CASUAL IN THE SUNSHINE

The knitted sweater is my grandmother's from the fifties, the rest is old, new stuff. Or how would one put it; new-old, old-new. Hmm. Later in the Easter weekend it got so warm one could stay out with short sleeves on. Finally!

I feel there's been an awful lot of pictures of me here on this blog lately. You know sometimes when blogging this 'what-the-hell-am-I-doing-just-posting-pictures-of-myself-here-all-the-time'-feeling comes over you. Another case of the 'blogsistential crisis' perhaps. But I do remember this little poll I had last autumn where it turned out that in the end outfit posts were the most required. Le sigh. And from time to time there has been very little of those too. I blog in cycles I guess.

Umm, well yes, anyway, if you just can't get enough I suggest you like The Freelancer's Fashion Blog on Facebook too. In the beginning I had no exact idea why I started that page, I just thought it'd be smart at some point or something like that. But it perhaps turned out a less official version of the blog, more face to face interaction. (I mean, as face to face as you can go in the virtual world...) It's also been rather useful. And it is quite fun!

Anyway, now's the time to like it if you will - this blog is reaching 2,000 followers trough Blogger soon and the Facebook page is slowly but certainly climbing up to 1,000 likes. I'm putting togheter something nice for all of you when 2000+1000 happens!

(Btw I also think I look like a squirrel in the first picture but I posted it anyway.)

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW: EASTER FLOWERS HERE AND THERE, EASTER DRESSES AND SUNSHINE OUTSIDE

SUNSHINE AND THE SIXTIES

The jacket, bag and gloves are vintage, the dress Trashy Diva. And the shades are oh yes mint green!

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW : EASY TUESDAY

Day off! I'm having cheese cake /curd pudding with strawberry jam on the balcony. And it's warm!


Lulu is enjoying the sunshine next to me too.


Which means she's letting the kids' Easter Grass to grow in peace for a while. (But as you can see the cats have been there a bit already...)


The doorbell rang earlier and the mailman (or, woman actually) brought me these vintage ear studs - they will be nice to match with my vintage Dior necklace.
From Novella Bleu Vintage.

A TOUCH OF NEW LOOK OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT

Well here's something you haven't heard me say before (ha-ha):
I have a new pair of shoes! Pretty ones!

I love the fact that they make my feet look rather tiny. Not that they are big to start with, but I still kind of like it if they happen to apepar tiny.

I also have a giant rose.


Pretty similar to the black beret-outfit I did some time ago, but by changing the skirt one gets a totally different feel. This is loosely inspired by the New Look. Perhaps what I would have worn if I'd have been me sixty years ago exactly. And lived in, well, Paris perhaps.

I somewhere read someone saying you can't dress 'vintagy' unless you wear actual vintage or in some cases well done repro, but I claim that's not true - it's in the over all style and the details that the look lies; not the actual products. For me at least. Here I'm just wearing plain high street. But of course I'm not trying to be accurate or re-create an exact look; I seldom do, I only dress inspired by what I like.



The blouse is H&M (still haven't removed the zipper...), Skirt Zara, shoes from Next and betl from vivien of Holloway. The giant rose in made by Frollein von Sofa and the little beret is, as most of you know, by Molla Mills.

FAUX BOB AND PEARL COLLAR

I bought a vintage pearl collar from Etsy. But it's rather tight so I think it will work best the other way around; as a necklace


But wait; oh my! Have I cut my hair?


Well no I guess I'm not fooling too many as I kind of give it away in the headline already; rolled my hair into a fake bob. This time by rolling most of it around a rat in the middle and tucking the rest in, but I've also tried his by just making rolls inwards/downwards and carefully combing them together sleek on top. (But there are other ways to do it as well, as seen in this video for example.)

CURLY

Yesterday I went out for a meeting and dinner with the other Bitties at the Tiki bar. And what better way to do it in than a hairdo called Tiki Lounge! Freely adapted from the Tiki Lounge-do as seen in the Vintage Hairstyling book that everyone seems to own. I styled my hair different in the front and I was also in a bit of a hurry so my version turned out a bit messier - but sometimes it's nice with a less sleek do!

It's kind of a take on the "eternal roll-do" of mine, as the hair is flat on the crown and laying around the head and face.

They do this on quite short hair in the book, but it will work on longer locks too. Do it by curling your hair downwards - the book says to use a curler; I used hot sticks as I am far too impatient to curl all of my hair with a curler... bur rag curls or such would most likely work as well! Then pin your hair flat around the crown. Lift up the curls over the pins and pin them in place. You could (or perhaps should) pin the curls rather well defined, but I just folded mine up in a big fluff and used lots and lots of pins to keep it in place.

In the book the hair in front is curled and the curls left rather loose on top of the head. I pinned mine more away from the face and made a small roll form the middle to the side.

I meant to stick a couple of flower combs in the back on the sides but forgot :)

ANOTHER SMALL VICTORY

Yesterday we were fortunate enough to get some sun which I enjoyed with a small Sunday stroll outside. I noticed that the constant rains of last week which I - thank you very much - got to experience rather well and in detail in the harbor did bring a lot of good with them as most of the snow has melted by now. And it seems life has conquered after all (well yeah pretty much like every year) as, behold:

Our very first flowers are blooming!

And all you central Europeans and other lucky bastards that have been able to sit outside in parks and plain cardigans for a couple of months already can stop rolling your eyes, this is a big thing over here!


I would've tried to snap a more photographically correct picture of the crocus but I had such a terrible hangover headache that I could not keep my head down for more than a couple of seconds at the time.


Also, filled the home with fresh flowers and new plants for the balcony. This means tipped over vases, water on the piano and puke with flowers bits in it as my cats, Lulu in particular, can be real assholes when it comes to plants, but I still keep trying. And it will at least look nice a little while.


Busted!


Busted again!


Well these ones were at least speared over the night, so far so good...

A SMALL VICTORY

(and two small victory rolls)

Hah! After more than five, yes, five months (Damn you, climate!) I can finally wear heels outside!

A pretty big victory actually.

ME / MOOD

You can read an interview with me in Estonian fashion magazine Mood.
(If you can read Estonian that is.)

BABY BLUE, PASTEL YELLOW AND PALE GREEN

(Dungarees from Tara Starlet)

STILYAGI

I'm watching the Russian movie Stilyagi.

(In present tense yes, as I've been watching it in bits during some days and right now as a matter of fact, while waiting to load the next ship. Some movies suffer from not being watched as a whole but this works well in shorter pieces, kind of like watching a series).

It is a musical and I'm not always all that Wohoo! about those, but in this case it works very well. The movie takes place in Moscow 1955. It is super saturated and stylized in every way!

The movie tells about the stilyagas; a subculture of somthine to be labelled as hipsters or beatniks in Soviet from the late forties until the early sixties. They were sporting an exaggerated fashionable, American influenced style which was of course not considered politically corrector in suitable with socialist values.

I couldn't find it as a DVD anywhere but lucky everyone, it can be seen as a whole on youtube (<-click)! With English subtitles as those may come in handy for most of use. Worth watching!

(You can see a Soviet propaganda clip ridiculizing the stilyagi here.)

SHOEGAZM

I always thought of dresses as my biggest weakness but who am I kidding - it's shoes! Shoes, oh shoes. I just can't get enough. I can't help myself when I see a beautifully shaped shoe and especially not if I try it on. Oh!

It just so happened that I got myself not only one but two pairs this weekend when doing a quick trip to Tallinn. And, sigh, I have another pair waiting for me at the post office. I'm hopeless. But shoes just are so delicious.

While a faiblesse for dresses still isn't totally hopeless in our climate due to the fact that one can somewhat dress them up for winter a shoe-wekaness I'm afraid is. Hopeless.

A few winters back I was however able to wear heels in January and February due to the mild weather and dry streets and it made me feel happy and seem sain, but the two past years have been like winters were when I was a kid : cold, snowy and very very long.

Would it be considered a little vain or maybe even desperate to move to another warmer part of the world only to be able to actually use all the shoes in ones wardrobe? "Honey, leave your job and sell your property, we need to change continent so I can wear my shoes all year round."

What can I do - what cold I have done in this case? Surely every woman needs a pair of leopard shoes!

And one can never say no to beautifully shaped heels. (Or pretty stockings either, but that's another story.)

But you do know what this little splurge means now don't you? - I'll have to sell away some of the shoes I haven't worn enough or that does not fit me well enough! These ones and this pair for example. Stay tuned over at my auction blog; I will post some items during the week to come!