New Vintage Dresses

If you are a fifties nerd it is literally not very often you get new clothes. But I have been lucky to add some new things to my wardrobe lately.

A nice red fitted dress from the early sixties, found at a flea market:

It is a little too big, but if I cannot take it in I will sell in in my shop.

Another nice dress from the early sixties which I also found at a flea market:

Look at the lovely brooch-like detail at the collar, so nice:

I have been lucky to find some nice things at Brittany's shop Vintage Under Thirty. I know I will love this stribed dress in the coming winter, and I have several nice grey cardigans that will be perfect over it:

I got this lovely fifties dress for a song at the same shop:

A little work had to be done on it. I sewed a new zipper in the side and let the hem down, but that's it.

A very nice basic skirt in a lovely dark green (the photos shows a wrong colour), that I also know I will love in the coming winter:

A dress from the early sixties with some spots I had to work on to get off:

I've bought two lovely fifties dresses from The Vintage Studio:

The silhuet from the fifties is in general either fitted, like this one (in wool so I have to wear a slip under it) or with a generous skirt, which you can wear a petticoat under. I like having a mix of both types in my wardrobe, so it doesn't become too stereotype.

I have long wanted more winter dresses, so this check patterned beauty was quickly clicked into the basket:

I have done the math - in Denmark you can only use summer clothes for three months, if we are lucky. So I don't need more summer clothes.

If you want to see me wearing the dresses, you have to follow me at Instagram, because there the photos are so small that you cannot see how old and unphotogenic I am.

And I've bought this simple but lovely Halloween cardigan, which I think is from the eighties:

It is the best I've ever seen, so now I only need a nice Christmas cardigan.

And this has nothing to do with clothes, but I could not pass by these lovely old curlers:

The are both nice, decorative and usable - what's more to wish for? ;)

The gold decorated box in closed condition:

Monroe Monday

The Art of Packing

I am not the type that travels light. If I could I took ALL my clothes, shoes, makeup and jools with me. But over time I have become better at limiting myself. Many times I've come home and have put lots of clean clothes back into my closet, so I started noticing what I really used at my holidays. Of course it depends on the season and where you are going. In our summer holiday we went to Austria, where the weather is a lot like Denmark - both warm and sun, but also rain and cool days.

A starter tip is to write a list. I love writing packing lists, it is part of looking forward to the holiday to write what I want to bring with me. When you have written a great list you can reuse it, since there are some things you always bring with you. Here are all the things I brought with me and my vintage suitcase which is definately not very big and don't have wheels, which also helps limiting what to pack:

What have I packed for a week in Austria? The pile at the right contains two pairs of capri jeans, a long pair of jeans and a skirt. The left one contains five blouses (thick and thin) that matches all the jeans and the skirt, plus a shawl with vintage maps, which does not match anything:

I also packed three dresses, which are nice with both heels and flats, a cardigan or the shawl over. They are placed at the top of the suitcase, slightly folded, so they are not crinkled when I arrive, but it is only the pink one that gets a few folds:

The trick is to fold the clothes as few times as possible. You can also roll it, but I have never liked that method.

My lingerie is pink, because it is invisible under all my clothes. Ooooh no, she shows her lingerie! No, I don't, it is just piles of pink fabric. My lovely Miracle bathing suit with blue/green leaves from the US is at the right. It is not sure I will use it, but I always bring it with me, because I hate buying one:

Shoes, oh shoes. I would prefer to bring at least 20 pairs with me, but here I have limited myself to five pairs, where I wear one of them pairs:

The red flats matches all the jeans, the silver flip-flops are both nice and practical and does not take up much space. The sound, but quite nice, Rieker sandals in the middle are my favourite, since they are fantastic to walk in all day long. And then there are my fabulous clear Miss L Fire retro shoes, that match everything. At last my lovely Steve Madden rhinestone sandals, which also are comfy and matches everything from the jeans to the tight dresses.

Here everything is packed into the suitcase:

At the left the pile of blouses, at the right a pile of jeans, a thin white cardigan (which matches everything, have you got the idea now?), and the shawl. At the back against the suitcase lid are my shoes in shoe bags, which are easy to sew yourself if you cannot find any like them, or you can use plastic bags. In the middle lies my lingerie and on top of if comes "various". At last comes the dresses at the top.

Various is jools and electronic. Here are the jools I brought with me:

I am a jool nerd, I even have my own shop, since I now and then have to clear something out of my huge collection. Here I have packed my favourite ring, the change-ring from Runa, because then I have colours for everhting in just one ring. And my nice little box with magnetical ear clips from the fifties. The dark blue bag is quite old, but very practical to pack holiday jools in.

This is how it looks inside:

When packing jools for a holiday you can chose to go the classic way, like e.g. white pearls, which is always good and matches everything. Or you can pack for the season instead of mathing your clothes. I chose the season, so I packed my dessert bracelet, sea shell jools, ladybug and beach themed jools. A jool bag like mine can be found at Etsy.

Various is also a few electronic things and extra sun cream:

Well, yes, I know I could have all the music at my new smartphone, but I happen to love my little, old ZenStone with matching loud speaker.

And here is evertyhing I bring with me on my holiday:

It is not more than I can carry myself. The suitcase in my hand and the train case and my lovely new green holiday purse over my shoulder.

The train case is always ready for use. I have collected everything I need in mini and I really mean everything. But I think I will write about it another time.

I also bring a book and a new magazine with me.

A last tip is to bring some empty plastic bags with you for the laundry.

I hope you liked my packing guide, and if you have a holiday tip, do share it in the comments.

Monroe Monday

Son's Car

Happiness is having a mechanic dad - son has already got his second car. Perhaps you remember he got a white VW Polo when he got 18. It was later exchanged to another old Polo which is in better condition and have a better engine. It is now renovated with help from his skilled dad and parts from dba.dk (Danish eBay), you aren't rich when you are an apprentice. The result is really good and had to be celebrated with a photo session, where I got the honour of being the photographer. When we got home, son's good friend, Thore, who is a talented graphic artist, edited all the photos. Here are the results:

We drove to Refshaleoen at the Isle of Amager, where there were some lovely old and decayed buildings, perfect background:

Son has painted the brake drums bold green as a contrast to all the black:

We sneaked into the great hall of B&W (the one where the huge International Song Contest just has been held) and took some photos:

When we were almost done, we by incident found this great graffiti wall and had to shoot a few more photos:

I think we were quite good at finding different backgrounds for our photos:

This is one of my favourite photos. I lured son to climb up on the old tree stem and look down at his car:

Son's favourite photos, shot in the hall of B&W, hand held camera and no flash:

I also lured son to take a few photos with him and his car. I suppose this one is quite good, since it ended as his Facebook profile photo:

And here is the proud owner:

When we were done I demanded an ice cream as my humble wage, since it was damn hot crawling on the asphalt in the burning sun. But it was a very cosy day with the boys, which I will remember for long.

Monroe Monday

Monroe Monday