Don't Buy Sleep-in curlers

And I really mean as in NEVER EVER!!!

It is the most lousy product I've ever tried! Now you're warned.

It seemed so glamorous:

And I am obsessed with curls! Perhaps because I have very straight hair, I'm always looking for the easy solution for getting lovely curls. I love easy solutions, so a few weeks ago I invested in these Sleep-in curlers:

But look at them - they're pink, have glitter at the ends and you can sleep with them! It would not get any better - I thought. It is soft foam rollers with velcro. You can read more about them here and watch videos etc. But the rollers are NOT soft when you have them in your hair and your head hits your pillow - it felt awful. And they were almost impossible to take out again due to the velcro. After about half an hour in bed, I realized that I would never get any sleep with them in, so I decided to get up and take them out. A little later I had to call DH for help, and having struggled a little he said he had to CUT one of them out of my long hair! Over my dead body, honey! But then son showed up, and he almost died from laughing. He wanted to take photos and post me on FaceBook, but with a lot of patience he got the last curlers out without cutting. Thank you, son!

I bought them for 17 GBP at Look Fantastic, and had no problems returning them and getting a refund.

So if you are looking for an easy solution you really can sleep with, I will recommend you The Sculpture Pin Curler. It is also great for travelling since it doesn't take up much space.

The easiest (and cheapest) solution is still the sock bun, but it gives more like waves than curls in my long hair.

And besides these, I also have my essential hot curlers from Babyliss, an evergreen you cannot live without.

Monroe Monday

Vintage Sundress Potholder Pattern

Do you remember my Easter gifts? I've crocheted vintage sundress potholders for the women:

I had one single potholder left which my maternal grandma has made. I started copying it, but made it a little bigger and changed the pattern of the skirt a bit. And now I've written the pattern for you, unfortunately only in Danish. I'm not sure if I can translate it, but if you insist, I'll try:

Click for larger photo, if any of you understand Danish. I wanted to upload it in pdf, but Blogger not allow pdf.

Monroe Monday

Spring Nails

I'm painting my nails again and I've been quite good at remembering to take photos. Here is what I've been up to during spring. First my niece, who was so in love with my Halloween spiders, so she wanted spider nails for her twenty years birthday party:

Clear polish with black Konad spiders and web on the thumbnail - nice and different.

After having visited my doctor for check up on my stress, I bought a Ciaté duochrome polish (Spending Spree) to cheer myself up. It is cheaper than buying shoes:

I have tried to catch the duochrome effect, but it is not easy:

It looks like a pink steel kitchen zink with a golden colourshift - good explanation, right? ;) I have OPI's Extravagance from the Designer Series on the tips.

Here I have made turquoise glitter stains on a pearly white base:

They were super easy to make and I liked them all week. I just polished my nails with the pearly white, let them dry a bit, then put a good dot of glitter polish in the middle of the nail which I dragged randomly out with a dotting tool. I also dotted around the stain here and there. The pearly white is a very old Gosh and the turquoise glitter is a two dollar polish from Germany.

Oriflame had discounted their spring polished, so this mint green (Mint Pear) found way to my collection:

I stamped it with a glitter purple Konad polish from our US tour. Very springy.

And here is the loveliest Indie polishes from Etsy, which I had to try immediately they landed in my mail box:

They are from The Hungry Asian. The green one is Kiwi Smoothie and the purple is Li-laquer. Her spring collection is super nice and overall she has polishes that differ from all the usual glitter polishes which Indie brands normally carry. But her brand name is reason enough for me to buy her polishes. :)

I went to a party in my new blue brocade dress from the fifties, so I had to design some nails in the right colours, here they are:

They are made with a very old silver polish from Yves Rocher, on which I have put normal tape at the top to make socalled Chevron nails, and then painted them blue with Sally Hansen's Blue Me Away! (a one coater, yipee!), and lastly I've put a rhinestone at each point. I think it was nice and simple.

Monroe Monday

ALT for Damerne, June 1955

As I promised in a previous post I will scan from a vintage ALT for Damerne (ALL from the Ladies) from the fifties on a regular basis. I think I will scan every second months, so this year it will be the even months, next year can then be the odd months. Let's start with ALT for Damerne number 23 from June 1955. Lovely cover as always, I wouldn't mind wearing the nice pink dress:

Let's continue with fashion, which all we ladies love - here is a summer cocktail of nice dresses:

And remember to click all the scans into larger formats for details.

Pattern on fabric is here presenting the usable summer dress:

Party and colours - what we all want:

I love the dotted dress and the one on the right beside it.

Bettina is wondering was a regular article every week. Here she is wondering about commercials and the powers of persuasion:

Am I the only one to think TV-shop?

Confide to Mrs. Nini was also a regular article every week, here I have scanned the whole page:

There is the young girl who hopes she can get medicine for untimely tears, the blood donor lady who is unsatisfied with her plaquette for her donor activity, and there is the elderly (!) home maker (aged 48), who is in doubt if she can buy herself new and smart lingerie for some of her heritage. Oh well, time has certainly changed!

You can also knit fashion - just look at this nice blouse:

You could also find the weekly menu plan every week:

I can never think of anything to eat for dinner, and I suppose homemakers back then had the same problem.

Do you have an extra and overlooked room? Then here is inspiration and advice on organizing the little room with lots of cosiness:

And now to the commercials, my all time favourites. Let's start at the practical end with an unheard luxury - an Atlas refrigerator, and the ad even has a recipe:

My mum had one like this in our summer cottage, when I was a child. It was only half as big and without light, because it was too expensive.

Two ads in one - Cutex Spillpruf, which doses the precise quantity of polish for one nail (which I don't understand, but anyway):

And a Piccolo at each finger - a funny name for a dish washing soap.

Feel secure in the summer heat ... with Bac:

I remember my mother used this while I was a child.

And the best Danish commercial slogan ever - Dandy, kvikker bestandig (equals to: Dandy, stimulates constantly):

Who doesn't want to glide in the limelight?

It is possible with stockings from Indra, with the long high heel, which is the latest fashion.

And instant soup, all homemakers' lifebuoy, when time presses:

My mother used this when we drove to our summer cottage and arrived late and tired. It was dark and cold, so dad lit the fireplace and mum made instant soup - which I remember tasted great.

Let's end with some small truths, said by Agathe Christie:

Mothers with self-sacrificing sons

don't like young girls.

It is no use thinking how bad you are.

One of the most difficult things is to find out

if people really is what the pretend to be.

She's still right.

Monroe Monday