Operation hotelroom 2

I ordered pictures I took in Sweden. People nowadays all have a digital camera. -So do I-
However, I still prefer my pictures being printed out in quality. Just because I want to be able to touch my pictures, to take them with me in my diary or to put them in frames.

Besides that, I still had some picture frame rails in my room somewhere, which I took off while repainting my room. I didn't put it back, because I thought it looked stupid. I changed my mind..





I found some old frames at home, and I bought a few new ones.
From left to right:
Picture taken in the archipelago of Stockholm, showing a typical little red Swedish shed - Picture taken on the island of Birka with a view on the hilly landscape and a little boat on the pier - Picture taken on top of a waterfall in France - Image from a magazine - Picture taken in Stockholm City, showing an old boat and Södermalm - Picture taken in the archipelago of Stockholm, with a lighthouse - Postcard of Sverige, which my mum gave me after my holiday, because it made her think of me.
Funny, how all images show water.. Apparently I love water.

It's only a slight change in my room, but it already looks so much more like a bedroom than a hotel room. This is only my first attempt. I am sure that after a week, my room looks so much nicer and cozier.

Operation hotelroom

Most of you probably have seen my extreme room makeover. If not, I've posted it here.
Now, I do like my room, and things have slightly changed already, but somehow, it feels so much like an hotelroom. There are some personal objects in it, but somehow it doesn't seem to be MY room, but A room.
So.. I decided to set up 'Operation Hotelroom', to change A room into MY room. I just wanted to tell you guys, so you know what keeps me busy lately. Holidays always want to make me change things in my life that don't seem to suit me.
Before and after pictures will come up whenever it's finished!

Chique touch

I'm back home from Stockholm and ready to post some more again. I must admit that it's pretty hard to start where you've stopped after coming back from an excellent holiday.
However, with some help I've found back the motivation to go on :)

This morning, I've made some waist band/belt of two cheap materials: some lace and some belt hook.





It shapes, it's not expensive and it gives a dull uni-coloured dress a chique touch.
Yes, and again, it's that simple!

Hello Stockholm! - six

The last full day today. Mixed feelings.. I do like to go home again, but somehow I feel like I haven't seen enough yet. There is so much left to explore, to see, to experience.

Yesterday was so amazing. I went to Kungsträdgården in the evening, hoping there would be some open air concert, but sadly enough there wasn't any. Well, I thought, watching people passing by can be fun too. I was just enjoying to see the variety of people, when an older man came to sit next to me. He asked me something in Swedish, which I did not understand. Somehow, people talk to me in Swedish automatically here. Apparently I don't look like a foreigner. Anyway, the man repeated his question in English, asking me if it was okay if he smoked. I said yes, and a conversation was born. That man told me all about the city. He told me all about what to do, what not to do, which places are worth to visit, where to eat, drink and go out.. Where youngsters are having fun, what accents people have in different parts of the city and why. He showed me an excellent spot in town, from where you could see all the important buildings and the water with the ferries coming in from Finland..

However, today was the last day, and the old man recommended me to see the Vasamuseum and the Royal palace on Gamla Stan. I also wanted to see some of Södermalm, since I hadn't really seen much of that part of the city yet.

The Vasamuseum was pretty interesting. It was about a ship that had been built in the past, but already sank on the first day it went out.

This was the wreck. It took years for the people to get it out of the water, and in the museum you could see how exactly they did that. 333 years after the ship sank, the ship was above sea level again. The ship is so well preserved, because of the Baltic sea not being very salty.

Together with the ship, a number of people sank with it. The skeletons were to be found in the museum as well. Very nice to see how much has been found back of the sailors.

After that, I went to Gamla Stan on my rented bike to see some of the Royal Palace. Pretty nice to see really!

Apparently it was forbidden to take pictures of the crowns and jewels of the royals. Haha sorry, too late! I wasn't planning to remove my pictures, to be honest. Haha.

And now I'm tired. I haven't ever walked so much in one week. I just made use of the free sauna, which was pretty nice.
So tomorrow will be packing my bags and taking some last pictures of the hostel to show at home..

Hello Stockholm! - five

So, today was -and still is- a hot day. Clear blue sky and the sun shining bright. I planned to make the archipelago tour this morning. It would be a boat trip of three hours, showing me some of the many islands near to Stockholm. The archipelago is a recommendation if you go to Stockholm for a few days. It's so beautiful!

This is the view after just leaving Stockholm.

Lots of people living in Stockholm seem to have a summer house somewhere on an island in the archipelago. Besides that, many famous people have that as well. Probably because it's one of the most beautiful parts of the country. I've even seen Bjorn Borg's summer house.. Haha.
Here it is:

After the archipelago boat trip I actually wanted to visit some garden museum with lots of statues, but to get there, it was easier to rent a bike, because walking that distance was too far, and travelling by bus wouldn't be easy from where I was after the boat trip. Unfortunately, walking back to the hostel to rent a bike would take me too long, and renting a bike near to where I was after the trip was so terribly expensive, that I decided to change my plans.

So.. I've been doing some vintage shopping again! After I get back home, I will show some pictures of the things I've bought. Seriously, if you'd like to buy vintage clothing or buy some antiques, VISIT STOCKHOLM!

I saw these beauties. Amazingly beautiful dark red leathered shoes. They were only about 20 euros! Unfortunately they were too small..

Hello Stockholm! - four

So, yesterday evening I went to see the sunset in the Old Town. Seriously.. Gamla Stan looks so amazing when the sun is setting. It already looks amazing in normal daylight, but it gets some magical touch in the evening. It's all so pieceful and lovely. Street musicians play peaceful music on guitars.. I felt a bit like a fairytale figure.

Today I went to Uppsala, but unfortunately the weather was bad. It rained all morning, and it was cold and windy. I wanted to see some of this university city, but the weather made it unable to see much. I went to the cathedral and the arts museum, but after a walk of about half an hour, I decided to walk into the direction of the shopping area. I thought the weather was better for shopping than for making city walks.

Hello Stockholm! - three

Day three, Birka. This morning I got up early to take a boat trip to Birka, which is a viking island, only 1 hours and 45 minutes away from Stockholm. I already thought it would be nice to see an historical monument (yes, it's part of the Unesco heritage list), but I hadn't thought it would be that interesting and beautiful.

There were a few of those piers with an excellent view. I've spent a time writing on the first pier, overlooking a hill with a monument on top.

This view was common on the island of Birka. The little hills you can see are graves of people who lived on the island. There are lots and lots of them, around 2000 if I remember that correctly.

I joined an English guide who explained everything about the island. He wanted us to remember one thing: Vikings were Scandinavian, but not ever Scandinavian was a viking. Only approximately 5 percent of all the Scandinavians were vikings. You could see it as a kind of 'job'.

This was our guide. My compliments for his English and his way of talking. He was a real good talker. His way of guiding was extremely interesting and easy to listen to. He didn't give you a chance to get bored or distracted. He did a great job in showing us some perfect spots, he explained all about the history of the island, and above all, he had a great sense of humor!

This was the view on one of the highest points of the island. Isn't it beautiful?

Tonight I'm planning to view the sunset in the inner city of the capital of Sweden. I'm curious how Gamla Stan looks when the sun is setting. I hope there is some live music as well. We'll see.

Hello Stockholm! - two

Today's planning was to visit one of the islands of Stockholm named Djurgården. This island is situated in the south-east of the city and has a lot of things to visit. There are several museums and the island is very green in general. This sounded good to me, so I decided to go there.

This was the view from the island. Absolutely not city-like, eh?

On the island, I decided to visit Skansen, the first open-air museum ever set up.

There was live music, in old style. The people were dressed in old fashioned clothing as well. Very idyllic.

You could see how furniture was made. Pure hand-craft. Wow.

This was an electric printing machine. Unbelievable how they needed a complete building to print a paper..

Overal view of the streets of Skansen.

I thought the rest of Djurgården was too touristic and crowded, so I skipped the rest and went to Östermalm. Most of the small streets over there had one or more antique stores. In fact, I've seen all the islands of Stockholm today, because after visiting quite a number of antique stores, I decided to do a city walk which turned out to be a walk of about 4 hours.

Hello Stockholm! - one

I just arrived in Stockholm this morning, and I have already taken some time to see the block I'm living in for the nextcoming week. I'm staying in a hostel in the city centre, extremely close to all the main shops, but I must say that I find the block where the hostel is located far more interesting already.

There are some extremely interesting vintage shops! I've just been to one and I've bought an amazingly beautiful flower dress. I'm sure I'll wear that dress to Christmas prom this year. I promise to post a picture after I'm back home, because I have to do some adjustments to make the dress fit perfectly.

By the way, I have to admit that I am happily surprised about the state of the hostel. It's not dirty, it's not old and ugly, it doesn't smell bad and I haven't noticed any bugs either.

This must have been a good choice.

Holiday

Sorry for not posting much lately. I'm very busy preparing my holidays. Next monday I'll travel to Stockholm for one week. I'm not sure whether I am able to post over there but I'll try to keep you updated.
I wish you all nice holidays. See you soon!

50's skirt

Thank you thrift store for helping me. Thanks for offering me a perfect basis.
Remember the black skirt with the weird ruffles I bought? I've removed the ruffles and made a new seam.



This skirt is a good basis for lots of classical outfits. I still missed such a classical piece in my closet. Feminine, simple but effective.

Simplicity

YES! It is that simple..

Attempt two

I've completely ruined the skirt I was sewing a few days ago.




Look at the seam. I had to get the seam out, because I sewed the inside out. That already gave some ugly ruffles, but the cloth is just completely ruined after ripping out the old seam.

The thrift store gave me a second chance though. Thank you thrift store! I found this amazing skirt. It actually is a high-waste model, but it fits me perfectly whenever it rests on my hips. I don't like the ruffles, but I've decided to cut them off, to then seam it straight. That won't be to hard. There's not much to ruin there. Such a skirt was exactly what I had in mind to sew!



Since I've got this size below-zero lately, I don't fit clothing in regular shops. Not that I mind, because I found out what amazing pieces thrift stores have. And strangely enough, those shops do have pieces that fit me perfectly. A few pieces I bought in thrift stores lately:


This cute African inspired dress. It's actually a top in size "huge", but it fits me as a dress pretty well.


This extremely long dress. I have to wear it with high heels, otherwize I would step on my own dress. The dress is hooded and has two huge pockets. It's pretty feminine, but somewhat casual as well, due to the hood.


And my favourite: the very-high-wasted black pants. I didn't have one black pants left to wear. They all got too big, so I was really happy to find this piece. It fits me perfectly and it's somewhat different than a simple and boring black jeans.

The best things about thrift stores.. They are cheap, they have unique clothing and if you decide to spize up something you've bought, but it fails, it's no disaster, because it was cheap anyway!

DIY - Ugly beads coverage

In need of a new unique, self-made bracelet, but all you can find is ugly, cheap looking beads? No problem. Just wrap them in whatever colour you like!
My mum came home with the ugliest bracelet I've seen in the past few years. She said she liked it, because the beads looked so much like precious coral pearls. But mum, hey, those pearls are beautiful and these cheap beads are not.

My camera captured the bracelet in such a way that it looks way better than it looks in real life.

All you need to wrap these beads is an old piece of cloth and some iron wire. If you have a pincer, use it! Just cut little squares out of the cloth, cover the beads like a little candy and bind the top with a little piece of iron wire.




Tack your beads, using a needle. Otherwize it would be impossible.



I have added a rose to my bracelet, which I've also used here.

Work in progress

I'm not really able to finish something these days. I'm doing too many things at the same time. First of all, the door-whitening project is still a work in progress. I'm now busy painting the fourth door out of seven.
Besides that, I still have got a Mazda hubcap, half cleaned. I'm not sure whether to make another light fixture, or to make something else out of it. It will probably take me a couple of afternoons to clean it properly.
And thirdly, I started to sew, but since I couldn't get anything done that afternoon, that project is also only halfway done. The skirt is a failure and the jacket is only cut, but not seamed yet. I didn't dare to touch it any further after multilating the skirt completely. I hope to convince my mum to go to the thrift store again today to see if there's any basis I can work with.

Clumsy

I already knew I was a bit clumsy, but everything I lay my hands on seems to fail these last days. I sat behind the sewing machine yesterday, sewing a skirt. Ever so easy, I thought. Until I found out that I seamed the waist band inside out. And that resulted into ugly seams on the outside of the skirt. After taking the seams out (what took me like, an hour?!), I did attempt two.
Failed..
The seam was all crooked now.

This morning, I thought to make myself a somewhat different breakfast than the usual quarck with walnuts and honey. I wanted to bake myself bananabread.
And since I didn't want a complete bananabread, I decided to quarter all ingredients and bake one small for myself.
Why hadn't I thought about the melting point of a plastic bowl? It all looks so logical and obvious now.

However, I have to say that I do like the new shape of the plastic bowl. It's some sort of inspiration. Maybe I can once make an object out of plastic, by just melting my materials in a mould in the oven!

Back to the 50's

Ever seen fashion from the 50's? It's ever so feminine and body-hugging. No bad fitting jeans in which you can't even bend your legs normally. No lovehandles above the seams of your pants. No shapeless baggy cloths. Just well-fitting, comfortable body-respecting dresses.
I'm inspired.

However, no (vintage) shop seems to sell my size. Size zero is already rare, but smaller than size zero just doesn't exist. So, this afternoon will be filled with sewing. I'm going to sew my own vintage 50's dress. Simple, but effective. But first I have to repair the needle of the sewing machine, because it broke off while sewing last time. I should handle it with more care..



Less is more.

Byebye salmon!

I feel so relaxed lately. Haven't felt so relaxed for ages. I don't have the slightest problem to fill up the sudden overdosis of spare time. Extra time means 'Hello white doors, goodbye salmon pink ones'.

Sadly enough I couldn't find the CD of Big Fat Snake and I also couldn't find it on the internet. But Zuccero will do as well. I used to listen Zuccero when I was a little kid. I still don't understand what in hell he's singing about, but I know each 'word' by heart.

Nostalgic music, a relaxing activity, an overdosis of spare time, an excellent mood.. It's ever so simple. Can life get even better?
Enjoy your weekend!