A Spring-Summer Recap

Just to get into blogging again I have decided to do a post with mostly pictures. I have a whole heap of outfit pictures from spring and early summer that I need to post now or never... I especially love my eclectic spring outfits but I was too busy to write blog posts this spring so this here will be a recap.

I love this red jacket! It is one of my favorites for spring! I'll have to stay slim if I want to wear it for all eternity though, it's a thight one! This jacket is a vintage find from Beyond Retro (my favorite place for shopping strange vintage clothing!).

Sorry for the picture quality here. I can't even blame the dusty mirror for this one. This outfit was the one I wore when I had just turned in my paper and wanted to celebrate that milestone! Both the jacket and the dress here are actually from H&M!

This dress is another Beyond retro find! I absolutely adore the dark teal color of it but that color is absolutely impossible to capture on camera, even in natural light... The mirror is extremely dusty here so I guess you can't really see the dress anyway. Trust me, it is dark teal velvet and gorgeous!

On my birthday I visited Stockholm one last time before my big move. I went on a big perfume sniffing spree and to a couple of Second Hand stores. I fell in love with Les Nombred d'Or Cuir by Mona di Orio and at Beyond Retro I bought this dress. I never thought that I would ever fall for floral clothing, but I did! It is the perfect summer dress, a thin, machine washable cotton with a lace up back!

This is an outfit for colder days. The tunic is one of my favorite pieces, wide sleeves, lace, tight around the wrists... All this AND machine washable! Just perfect!! I bought it at H&M a number of years ago and it remains one of the most unique pieces in my wardrobe!

Here is another of my favorite pieces from my wardrobe, my black velvet dress, previously seen in at least one other outfit. I love how versatile it is, it can be dressed up or down, made morbid or romantic...I bought it at Weekday a couple of years ago. Here it is paired with my dark floral tights.

And now we get to my absolute favorite outfit of all time.I just had to include more than one picture of this outfit! I wear it again and again and I never tire of it! All of these pieces just fell together one day and became this outfit without any premeditation on my part! My black velvet dress is the base, together with my golden party skirt. The skirt was bought second hand, the absolutely gorgeous jacket is from H&M, the necklace is from LeBoudoirNoir and the slippers were a gift from a friend.

Hope you have enjoyed this little exposé. It will unfortunately be my last outfit post for a while... I don't have a full lenght mirror here yet. I didn't bring the old narrow (and perpetually dusty) one back to Finland with me and I have no idea where to find the wall space for a wider one in my room, not to mention the money to buy one...

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In other news, from real life, my summer job has ended. Since Midsummer I have worked as a library assistant in a small local library. I have had that little library all to myself for a whole month! I LOVED it! Working there full time is my dream for the future, but I guess I'll have to wait...

My room is also taking shape. All of my books have by some miracle managed to fit in my book shelves and all of my clothes in my wardrobe. I had doubts about both! There is even some space for more books (this is the real miracle, I have been cramming for years)!! Now I only have a few more boxes of assorted nick-nacks to unpack.

My post about my herbal teas will be up sooner or later, whenever I can find the inspiration to write a long text... I have soo many photos of herbal tea now that I'm thinking that I might have to split the post up into several parts... We'll see...

I also have A LOT of new perfumes in my life! An Alkemia haul or two, some giveaway packages, some full sizes from Darling Clandestine, some samples from Wild Hybrid and even my first real niche purchase,a small bottle of above mentioned Les Nombres d'Or Cuir from Mona di Orio. I smell good!!

Etsy Finds - Necklace from The Navigatrix + Outfit

I recently took part in a giveaway that the inspiring Sally-Ann Livingston hosted on her blog. And I won a £15 gift voucher to be used in her Etsy shop! Sally-Ann is a UK based creator of mostly one of a kind upcycled Steampunk jewelry and accessories. Her shop is cleverly named The Navigatrix, a name that is fabulously Steampunk! And you all know how I love Steampunk! I was already quite familiar with her shop so I went right ahead and bought a necklace I had looked at earlier for the voucher. But there are a lot of other gorgeous items in her shop! I was also tempted by this pretty clockhand necklace, this other beautiful choker and this hilarious brooch! 

-----> Sally-Ann has been nice enough to offer all readers of this post a special offer of a 15% discount for any purchase from her Etsy shop, using the coupon code BLOG15! So go and have a look!! 

Handling and shipping were very fast (is it just me or has international mail picked up speed lately?), so I had the package in my hand about a week after entering the giveaway. The necklace was beautifully packaged, using Victorian Steampunk aesthetics! I love the image of the compass on the package, such a suitable symbol for a shop that is named The Navigatrix!

                                               

The necklace itself is of a choker type with an oxblood brocade ribbon and a brass heart. Normally I´m very much not a heart kind of person, but this one is fine and that oxblood colored ribbon just charmed me! Oxblood is one of my favorite colors on me, that and dark teal, so I knew that I would have items to match this necklace. Also, it is both dramatic and demure at the same time, I rather like that! It sits very elegantly around my neck! The brass heart is light and the ribbon soft so the necklace is very comfortable.

Of course, the first thing I always do when I have acquired something new to wear is to find outfits that suit it. So here is an outfit! This necklace prompted me to bring out my ridiculously sexy little black dress, yet another Beyond Retro find... Of course I also wore Vixen by BPAL while choosing an outfit, so maybe that influenced me a bit... ;) This dress is so sexy (the pictures do not quite do it justice) that I feel slightly uncomfortable wearing it, and I´m not terribly prudeish! This outfit would probably be the perfect one for a Valentines Day date, only I´m asexual and I hate Valentines Day... It is definitely a dress for very special occasions and I don´t have many of those, sadly. So this dress spends most of its time in the back of the wardrobe... I have only worn it out once and man did I get stared at!

In any case, the necklace fits quite well with it and with those thights! I feel like a film noir heroine in this!

So, did you find any favorite items at The Navigatrix? What are your favorite colors for clothing? Which is your favorite sexy perfume? Is this dress too sexy for an asexual?? ;)

Awful or Awesome - Case #2 The Brocade Jacket

Oh yes, this one definitely deserves the capital letters! I think this is awesome! But I know many people who cringe at the sight of it. I love brocade, and I love jackets, this one has brocade in just the right colors and such an awesome cut! It is a VERY powerful piece though, it cannot be ignored! When the sun shines, this one shines too! A lot! I feel like a second sun when I wear it in sunlight. And my do people stare!

I found this one at a second hand shop called Beyond Retro, they have a chain of shops both in Sweden (three of them in Stockholm, just a 40 minute train ride from here!!) and in the UK. They also have an online shop. I love that place, it is definitely my go to place for absolutely unique items of good quality! Not too expensive either, but expensive enough that I only shop there about twice a year as I tend to get carried away... My dear top hat is also from Beyond Retro, but it is not second hand.

This brocade jacket is completely anonymous, no lable or any signs that there has ever been a lable. It seems tailored to me and it might have been made as part of a theater production or something like that. It has some details that have been lovingly hand stitched but it still gives a decidely proffessional impression. The patterns align perfectly and it is just so stunning that I get chills!! Oh, I could just go on and on about this one, it is hands down the best find I have ever made! It cost me just 35 €! It´s a little bit big on me, but who cares!!

But, for the awful part of it, it might just be too extreme for most people in the known universe! Shoulder pads, gold brocade, strange cut... I love it, but most people wouldn't! My mother exclaimed "WHAT is THAT?" the first time she saw it!

So my mind might be made up, but what do you think? Could you handle wearing it? Is it cringeworthy? Is it awful or is it awesome?