PIN-UPS AHOY!

Here are the official photos of our contestants for the Pin-Up Finland 2015 competition, which I am part of producing this year!

The pageant is a friendly contest looking to give girls interested in becoming a pin-up model a chace to get a foot in between the door and kick off a possible career.
You saw a little making-of earlier already. There is also an official making-of video which you can see here.

Cherry Star

Cherry La Teae

Carissa La Dame

Cherry Jo Candie

Honey de Rose

Ida von Dark

Inka La Vinda

Be Bop A Roosa

Sweet Honey Susan

Fanny White

Veda de Cadenza

Miss Candy Cat

Do you have a favourite?

Photos by Hannes Honkanen.
Concept and styling by me &Tinker.
Clothing by Vintag'Eijas / Eija Mannila (outfits sewn separately for each contenstant)
Make Up: VIP MakeUp Lounge Mia Sirén & Mercy Maybelle
Shot at Relandersgrund, Helsinki.

(Our clothes are mixed from out own wardrobes and not from Eija's.)

The winner will be chosen next weekend -October 3rd - by a panel of judges in Lahti at the American Car Show. The final is in three rounds featuring different (amazing!! - Eija is so talented to make repro and pick out vintage. Swoon.) outfits from Vintag'Eijas as well as accessories from Rockabilly Cherry and Sulokas. PinUp Helsinki will offer the winner a photoshoot.

There is also a separate social media vote going on on Facebook, which you can find here:
Pin-Up Finland finlaists, with styling by the contestants themselves and photos by Marika Kiviharju.

I am a bit sceptic of votes on social media as they usually just generate likes for the ones with the most active friends or followers... but everything should of course not be taken so seriously. So go ahead and give the photo and model you like the best your vote if you so like!

SAY CHEESE! / THE PIN-UP FINLAND FINALISTS' PHOTO SHOOT

Last week we organised the official photo shoot for the twelve Pin-Up Finland finalists!
As you  may remember from earlier, I am part of producing and hosting the competition this year,

The day started at our studio for hair and make up. The contestants arrived from all corners of the country for their big day. On big shoots like this, there is always a lot of waiting.

We are very proud to have Béseame Cosmetics as one of our sponsors for the finals!

Make up artists Mercy and Mia in full action.

Me rolling some hair. (Photo by @ruskarieban)

We had one shoot on location in our studio. But for our main calendar pictures we headed elsewhere!

Here are our fabulous  outfits for the ladies, put together by our clothing sponsor Vintag'Eijas! Vintag'Eijas is a vintage store as well a seamstress (that I am sure many of you have heard of in blogs and such, even if you may not be Finnish) and she had done an amazing job making outfits for the girls!

And then we headed over to our actual location; the old lighthouse ship Relandersgrund! It serves as a café nowadays. Worth a stop if you are in town; it's details and the  surroundings are very nice.

 And then it started raining...

 Waiting out the rain on board.

So on to plan B, taking the rest of the pictures inside the ship.

 Hannes at work.

At the end of the* (very long) day it was time for us to get out of the comfy wear and into the little shorts and do one last round of posing ourselves. Here's an instagram shot of that, the real pictures are to be revealed later.

(...And we've seen them already and they are just great! Meep meep!)

*) well, almost at the end of. We still had to dig out staples (from posters) from and paint one wall back at our old studio. Phew!

PREP O'HOI!

It always feels like a small victory when it's warm enough again to take out the spring jacket and tuck away the winter boots! And that time is here now. Yes.

The suit and bag are vintage and the sailor top is from Tara Starlet a few years back.

On another note, every now and then I get this issue with outfit posts and posing and posting about it. Sometime wonder if I should just start doing them all like this...

...or then maybe not.

NAUTICAL

I am the kind of some find silly, others adorable, and the rest  won't notice person who when going to a meeting that happens to take place in a marina I just have to wear a sailor inspired dress, because that's of course what you do going even close to a marina.  If not for else, it makes life a little more fun at least.

(Although here I rather look like Alice who just drank out of one of the bottles and started growing...)

And once at it, since wearing said dress all day long before marina moment too, I of course went along and dressed my child up accordingly too. Team outfits! Because what is cuter than a little kid in a sailor outfit? (Well that would be a kitten in a sailor outfit then. Or just a plain kitten; I'm not much for animals dressed up in clothes.)

The dress and belt are vintage. 

MY TATTOOS : TURRRBO CHERRY

My tattooer (I like being able to refer to my tattooer, like you refer to your hairdresser, your accountant, and so on) once said that the most stupid ideas often makes the best tattoos.

So this is my Turbo Cherry tattoo. Fat cherries with a sailor hat. Not that stupid an idea perhaps, but a little dumb. An idea which was born after a midsummer spent in the harbour - midsummers up here are almost holy, people flee the cities; really, streets are empty and even the open-every-day- all-year-round stores make an exeption and close their doors for those days. During my eleven years in the harbour I worked more than half of the midsummers and we on duty often stayed in the harbour all night long, the morning shift keeping the ones on the evening shift company, and once night came some staff from the ships would join us for some kind of midsummer celebration among the cranes and concrete. That midsummer left a photo of me by a ship in my leather jacket, a sailor hat and some wine, a photo which the next morning was transformed old school photoshop style (as in paper scissors glue and a copy machine) onto my locker in the dressing room putting me very naturally in the company of the Turbonegro guys.  And that's how Turrrbo-Cherry got it's start. (Note to self: must remember to save that picture from my locker, it's still hanging there).
This was in 2007 I think. The tattoo is opposite of the sad sailorette, on my left under arm.

Sometimes I hear people saying they'd like a tattoo but are afraid to get one because of the supposed pain. Umm, well yes. I can get it if we're talking a full back piece, but then again if you are dubious about such a piece it's probably something else than a fear of pain keeping you from it then. But if you're afraid that little butterfly or swallow will hurt too much, then you might as well just forget it as I think you most likely will not go for it in any case. If you'd really absolutely want a tattoo you would not keep the possibility of pain as a reason for not having it done. Because really, it's not that bad! That having said, it does hurt.  A little at least. More than I thought it would; I remember when I was having my first tattoo done (on the leg) my first reaction was 'WTF!' and thought "why oh why did I make it this big". I kept my cool of course and didn't say a word, got a little red on my cheeks perhaps and when the tattooer asked me if I thought it hurt I nodded my shoulders and said "maybe". He told me I'd be thinking about the next piece in no time and a couple of hours later it was done and I was of course very much thinking about the next one already. And the pain? At some spots on your body it feels like having a knife carving the picture deep in your skin and at other spots it mostly just tickles or feels a bit uncomfortable. The bigger the piece the more sore and tired your skin gets but a little one like my cherries here are done in no time so definitely nothing to complain about or keeping you from having one done.

First part in my "tattoo series", about pieces in general,  can be read HERE.

MY TATTOOS : SAILOR CHERRY

Every now and then I get some question and emails about my tattoos, and tattoos in general. Why, what, where when and so on. So, I thought we'd go trough them, one by one - which can be good for me too as I am so used to them I don't even notice them anymore and sometimes forget some of them are even there.

And as today is Sailor Jerry day it's a good day to start isn't it?
I'll start with one of the latest ones, which is my sad sailor girl on the inside of my left lower arm:

I got it made last spring, the tattoo was a gift from Eddi. It's made by Sailor Andy at Legacy. He's a Swedish speaking Finn like I am and has made most of my pieces. And as with most of those pieces, it's originally drawn by me, and modified by him a bit.

People always ask "what do this and that tattoo mean".
Well, I don't think tattoos have to mean that much. They can just be there for aesthetical reasons. Or funny reasons. Or for a stupid reason. Really, whatever you feel like. I don't mean I think you should just go to the nearest shop and pick one flash out from the book on they have in the  waiting room table. (But then again, if you see something there in that book that really speaks to you then why not.) The important thing is that you LIKE it. The tattoo does not have to have multiple meanings with Freudian layers and whatever,; you know, sometimes when people start dwelling on and on about some sacral meaning of their ink I start thinking bla bla bla bla bla what to get from the grocery store next and stop being so full of yourself. But does dot not mean your chosen piece can't have a reason or a story behind it either. It can just be anything, and some tattoos have more meaning than others, it's alright to be both deep and shallow about them.

This one is because, well, I like the sea, and I have been a harbour worker since 2001. And it's a folded paper ship in her hand, because I haven't ever worked on a ship. We'll that's not really the reason for the paper ship. It's just there because it suited the picture. Which is actually inspired by a picture of, ehrm, me. (Remember this series from 2010?) But it's not a tattoo of me though, just a picture of a sad sailorette that is rather me.

I know some people who say they'd want a tattoo but they don't know what to get and think for years and years about what symbolizes them best. And you know, it's never going to happen then. I've taken most of my pictures with rather short consideration actually. I get the idea and am all "YES". Although sometimes I've had to wait for the realization quite a while though. Haven't changed my mind about anything so far. I'm not totally sure this could be handed out as general advice though, but it has worked for me...

And, remember to always search for a good artist and in some cases you do need to think twice.
Always good to do a bit of browsing here first, for the bad examples (sad they don't do those great captions anymore)...

End of part one!

PS. yes I know I will still be tattooed when I'm old, duh! And it does not bother me, why should it? As some concerned people on the interwebs have wondered.

PREPPY PREGGERETTE

 I made myself a new nautical-inspired dress!

I made the top double so I will be able to use it for nursing too.

SAILORETTE AND DYING FLOWERS

Now you m ay know I am sort of home proud and like to keep it nice around me (although no, I may not always perhaps manage to keep it that tidy, ehrm, but I refer to it as a bohemic mess...I know Eddi, my mom or my sister will point this out anyway when they read this.)



I especially like to get plants and flowers and place them out around the house, mostly on the balcony now that we're still on the lighter side of the year.





I also try to remember to take care of them properly.





However, it does not always go that very well.





In fact (oooops)...





...sometimes it goes really really bad.

(I nowadays refer to my balcony as the gothic garden due to all it's dying flowers- the sunflowers did not make it that along either as you may spot from the corner.)





But one does not always have to be perfect at everything.

Or at least not admit it, right? *wink wink*





But oh well, I may not have that green fingers.

But I do have red nails!

And-





a really swell dress!

You did not really think this post was about my balcony gardening now did you?



Perhaps you may remember this dress from a few years back; I bought it from a vintage store in Copenhagen. It only took me two years to sew those two small seams in the back it needed to fit me better. Whoah, I can actually use it now instead of just having it on display on my clothing rack.





And, it's the perfect day dress -haha- it has pockets! You know that immediately raises it on my dress scale. Were I to have such a scale, that is.



The suede shoes are old, very old; my grandmother's from the early fifties and the belt is Vivien of Holloway.







Also, I took these pictures myself. On our balcony. Sometimes when I think about that it seems a bit retarded. But then again ladies, I do have a tongue and I tend to stick it in my cheek from time to time.

I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN VERY FOND OF THE SEA

On the ferry from Denmark to Sweden earlier today.

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW : FLOWERS & TATTOOS

It was actually Eddi that picked these forget-me-nots and lillies of the valley.


One of my new tattoos is inspired by, well, eh, me. And the sea.


I am so going to eat that one real soon.


My other new tattoo again is inspired by the fact that I like monkeys (monkeys are the coolest ever), seamen and the sea. And Plyti-Apan is also my oldest toy.