TO SHOP OR NOT TO SHOP

...is actually not the question. At least for me, since I'm really not that much of a "shopper". But it is for some.



So this is K. One of my very best friends and also my work-partner. But besides the work we do together she also wors as an Art Director and she works a lot. So sometimes when she feels really tired and stressed (that's quite often)she does some shopping. You know, some people eat chocolate, others get drunk, some shop. And also shopping whenever the sales are happening, just for the fun of it. Nothing wrong with that really from one point of view (which would be the capitalist view of our well-being society I'd guess. And we're all part of that, one way or another). But if you aready have a lot of things (how many of you reading this will actually need a pair of new shoes for real within say, the next two years?) or if you earn ok money but never really manage to save any of it it might be good to look at things from another pint of view.

K has a lot of really nice clothing and accessoary, she has very cute but still classy style and likes to get stuff from new designers or quality brands. (I wrote this because I've labelled my blog "fashion blog". Otherwise I coul've skipped this sentence :) But on our trip in Berlin, staying with our friend in a house where nobody really works (works in a matter of going somewhere to work and then get paid at the end of the month) but paint and do music and thus live on a quite tight budget K started talking about cutting down the shopping.

Inspite of the small budget our friend (who moved to Berlin from Helsinki last spring) still got by quite well. She didnt have a credit card but had a certain amount of cash to spend every month. She just didn't do any shopping - the only exeption being a pair of blue vintage suede boots for €10 in July (fashionblogger writing here again) - but otherwie lived quite like before. Now of course you can't compare Berlin to Helsinki in a matter of the costs for taking a cab or eating out (or at home either, not to mention the other costs for living) since Helsinki is so darn expensive, but I guess both K and I could get by on a lot smaller budget than now. It's hard to let go of a certain lifestyle one is used to, and I have no need for a drastic change, even though I could cook at home a bit more often than I do for example (half of the things I buy I'm forced to throw away since they go bad before I even try to make something out of them). And I could take the nightbus home with the common people every now and then after a night out on town instead of always grabing that costy cab. (please note my slight tone of irony here. I'm rather common too).

Then there is always the topic of what should you really do with all your money - save it for a bigger flat, travels, the future children, give everything extra away or whatever? I'm not going to go in on that (is anyone still reading at this point btw?) . I'll just stick to the more shallow stuff here.

Well anyway (you can continue reading here if you skipped some text above now), K made a decision not to do any shopping anymore. She didn't really say how long this project would last, I guess it will evolve into just buying less in the future, since I'm still quite sure she hasn't bought her last pairs of shoes yet :)
So, wish her luck!

Because this blog is mainly about pretty things and since it's nice with pics instead of just text I'll post a picture my magnificent mobilephone captured of some cute tings K got while it was still ok for her to consume - a lovely leather purse and leather cuff. Everything always looks like candy on her:


.............
...and a little update. K bought curtains and was a bit worried about that but they don't count since she needed them, they therefore had a purpouse and weren't just for herself but for her house and Mr too.

(If anyone wondres why this is labelled under 'fucked up things' it's just because this whole topic is quite fucked up really, even though it's quite general; there are even blogs about people changing their lifestyles towards non-consuming and so on. It's just fucked up since we make such a big thing about it, in some parts of the world they would have no clue what the hell I'm talking about.)

HAIRDO'S #2 - Pincurl it Baby!

Oh well my darlings, I know you don't really come here just for nice pics from the archipelago... So I give you this - another retro inspired hairdo tutorial:



This hairdo is easy, when you're used to twirl/pincurl your hair you can do it within five minutes. I'm not that specific with how I place my rolls, so I get it done fast, If I pay more attention to how i roll my hair it will of course take longer time.

This time I've rolled it into four rolls. I've pulled my fringe back to the side with a comb, this do works as well with or without finrge.

This hairdo is great for a bad hair day when your hair is
a) too clean; fly and won't stay in place. Then I roll it up in about six rolls. Done like this in the morning and opened in the evening it gives a beautiful wavy hair.
or
b) dirty (like mine is now in these pics, sorry for that :)

1) First, take a section of your hair and picurl it, by rolling it around your finger and start rolling it towards the roots. Roll it quite tight since it will loose itself up a bit anyway when you fasten it. For a closer look, check out Super Kawaii Mama for example. She shows how she rolls her hair in the front in a quite easy-to-see video-tutorial.



2) The roll should look should look like this when you're halfways.



3) When you've rolled the hairsling all the way to your head, you twist the roll inwards and fasten it with bobbypins inside the roll. It took me some time to find the best way to fasten the roll so that the pin doesn't show too much and so the roll stays in place - I stick one down and one to the side in the middle of the curl. I usually have to stick about three pins into each roll. This is a bit tricky in the beginning but you'll get there!



4) Then, take another section of your hair and to the same with it.



5) ..and with the same of the rest of your hair. Stick in some extra pins wherever the hair feels too lose and if you have some loose slings of hair, tuck them in between and under the rolls.



Since I didn't pay that much attention to how I placed my rolls and since my hair was dirty I got myself a "bold spot" on one side. But no worries, I fix it by sticking a comb with flowers on it there. Otherwise I would've just rolled one of the curls again...



This really is very easy and turns out rather nice!



You can also make this if yo have short hair, mine is actually close to being too long. It should work with hair even a bit shorter than shoulder-lenght, but then you'll need to roll it into about six rolls I'd guess, since fewer rolls need longer hair to stay togehter.

Oh and you can always send me some pics if you make any of my do's you know :)

(And not to forget - I know some of you have asked me for a make-up tutorial too and I promise I will make one soon ok! But don't be dissapointed then - my daily makeup is really not anything of the extrordinary; eyeliner, lipstick and mascara...)

ARCHIPELAGO

(click the images for a better view)



I spent all my summers as a kid at our place in the archipelago. Now I only have time to go there a couple of days a time, a few times per year. It's sad in a way, but then again, I once more noticed I'm so bad at relaxing. I just kept on thinking of jobs not yet finished and the blog and nightlife in the city...shame on me. Well anyway, it rally is a lovely place and I played around a lot with my new camera (since I fially got one!) We have a small beach, a big garden, so many flowers and berries, lots of rocks and cliffs. The old house is from the 1800's, the other from the 1920's.












What I also like about the place is all the things there. It would be wrong to call it vintage, it's just original and old. But sometimes I take somethings with me back to my plac ein town, and then it does become vintage - like my couch, a funkis-style teak sofa from the 1930's (that's when teak was still not an ecological no-no). It was just stored among a lot of other unused stuff in one of the rooms in the big house. Of course I'd like to take a lot of other things and furniture with me too, but that would take the joy of those things away from the other members of my family...


But some clothes always make me company back to town. Last year my mothers red-and-white skirt, this year a tiny flower-patterned jumpsuit with a very dress-like cut.


On Tuesday I'll go to the other part of my family's summerhouse, it's by a lake in the South-Eastern part of Finland. Totally different form the archipelago. Over there I've found a lot of my grandmother's wonderful dresses; let's see if I have not emptied all the drawers yet. Maybe something will follow me home from there this year too.