last weekend i was at the fleamarket. this weekend, my parents will come to visit. even under big pressure it's really important to do something nice every now and then. and i am so looking forward to meeting them again. i don't see them so often, and when i'm done studying (soon!!) and move away i'll see them even less. which is a sad thing. but, this weekend they'll be here. which means i have to work very hard for another two hours to get my text done..
last sunday's outfit:
suede skirt and grey cardigan: fleamarket t-shirt: new yorker tights and belt: h&m necklace: accessorize shoes: vagabond
i took a little break yesterday and changed the look of my kitchen/livingroom. what i did was that i turned my sofa by 90 degrees, so that instead of facing the entrance it is facing the kitchenpart of the room. the room looks a little larger now, which is nice.
this also gave me the chance to try out a new place for outfit-pictures today. the light comes quite sharply from the side, so i'm not sure if i like it:
dress: fleamarket, shortened by me cardigan: h&m belt: orsay tights: gina tricot boots: vagabond
on saturday i've been to see the movie "desert flower", an adaptation of ex-topmodel waris dirie's autobiographical book with the same name.
i think this is an important film, with an important social and political purpose and message. it is well done. it is very well performed. and it was so generic and predictable that if it hadn't been for the importance of the content i would have been bored to death. so, as a cineast, i would not have wanted to spend 9euro on the regular saturnight ticket. thanks to yogurette and kinderschokolade we had two coupons enabling us to pay cinema-day prize (5,00€) on every day of the week, which was acceptable.
this is a german production. trying to look like hollywood, and almost getting there. it also is a german film about afrika, and the producer was the guy who produced "nowhere in africa", and some of the pictures could have been taken out of "the white massai". and it's a biopic. starting at one turning point in the person's life, following the person's rise to importance, plus a few flashbacks and a romance which does just get enough space to indulge those of us who need romance. both liya kebede (whom you can see on h&m's latest fall knit-campain - she is beautiful!) and especially sally hawkins do an amazing job in their roles and they really lift the film. as i said, this is not a bad movie. it is very solid, it is entertaining, and if you love africa and/or the world of high fashion you'll love the film.
i finally got round to shortening these dresses which i got at the fleamarket. the blue one also got new buttons, and i'm thinking about getting some lace for the hem as well..
on sunday i went for a long walk with a good friend. we went through the old town, which is beautiful with small, really old houses, none of which stands straight. behind the old town lies one of my favourite places, the kalkberg. its a smallish, very steep hill in the middle of the town, a nature reserve and you feel so far away from the city, even though it's only a few meters away...
this is how my workplace in the library looks like:
books, paper, pen, computer, water and some stuff we're not allowed to take inside but do anyway (hidden behind the computer =). i keep the mobile on quiet-mode, as well as the computer. i also have a book-wagon for myself, at least until the end of the month. it's nice not having to schlep all your books back and forth all the time. i try to keep it nice from the outside - how about some coffee-table book on vanity fair with reese witherspoon??
and this is how i looked like on wednesday - the lighting in the library is rather bad, so the picture was very yellow and i did my best with photoshop but there is only so much one can do. it almost got too blue instead...
i won! hübsch dich auf had a give-away where you could win a dvd with the movie "the dutchess", a costume drama with keira knightley, and i won one of the three dvds coco gave away... thank you, coco!!
the package arrived some days ago at my place, and i guess i'll try and see it this weekend - though i should be viewing all those austens once more...
today was a good day, i feel like i got some necessary stuff done. such as laundry, dishes, a long walk with a friend in the sunny town... and my favourite person in the world booked a ticket to come here in november!!!
i'm so behind with the blog, it's impossible. but i kept track with my spending even though i didn't post two weeks in a row about the shopping ban. i went into week five with 15,10 € on my budget. then i sold some stuff on ebay, and made 60€ that way which go into the budget, plus my 7 euro allowance per week, times three, makes alltogether 96,10€. wow.
and here is what i spent some of this money on:
a purple cardigan on sale in oslo, 10euro (i actually owned this one in white already, but i loved the purple one so much i had to have it when it was on sale..)
a black shirt on sale in oslo, 5euro
a fluffy warm hat for winter, 9euro (say good morning to the very sleepy person peeping out from under it!)
and two pairs of tights, one (picture) for 8, the other for 5euro.
so, i spent 37 euro in week five, six and seven. out of a budget of 96,10, which leaves 59,10€ on the budget.. maybe a new pair of shoes next week??
guess how excited i got when i discovered that there is a brand new version of jane austen's emma out there! or well, at least the first two parts of a miniseries of four parts, by the bbc.
the cast is something of a who is who of the best of british costume drama, both mr. knightley and mr. elton have played edmond in mansfield park (though in different adaptations) and finally michael gambon is playing a part in an austen adaptation (i have been waiting for this to happen..). the adaptations feels very fresh and modern, and still seems to capture parts of the book which earlier adaptations have failed to capture..
anyways. the first two parts have been aired, the third is supposed to air tomorrow. but. only the first part is available on youtube.. my question now to my british readers (though i don't know if there are many of you) - does any of you have the possibility to digitally record the miniseries for me? it is even available for streaming on the bbc-website, but they have disabled it for people outside the uk, and i would need it for my master's thesis. i know i could probably write to the bbc and ask if they'd be so kind and so on, but that's quite a hassle, so i thought i'd try it this way first...
it's been ages since my last outfit post, i know. but, good news. a good friend of mine (thanks, verena!) promised to act photographer from now on. we are both suffering from the master's thesis syndrom and are therefore, together with some other friends, under quarantine in the library during daytime, and we thought this might be a good idea of how to spend the usual coffeebreak.
it's autumn now, so i could take out my damsel of the castle dress again. i bought it some years ago in berlin and love it dearly, even though i can only use it during the colder time of the year - it is quite warm. it also is very cosy and makes me feel like a fairytale princess. today i felt very much like adding a little steampunk to the dress, and dug out this wonderful vest (which is a little smallish, though) from the depths of my wardrobe. i got it as a present from my boyfriend at least two years ago and have never worn it until today.. *shame on me*
dress: chapati vest and hairflower: h&m tights: c&a boots: vagabond
i've wanted to post about my last fleamarket finds from a few weeks back for some time but didn't really get around to doing it. that's how life goes.
i found a book from the 50s or 60s, on sewing. it has lots of pretty pictures and drawings and maybe also the one or other smart word about sewing...
a light grey cardigan. which i finally handwashed yesterday.
and two really pretty vintage dresses from the 70s. both need shortening, and the blue one needed new buttons, which i fixed yesterday. also, i didn't like the frayed hem of the blue dress, at all, so it had to go. it only needs hemming now, then it is good to go.
every now and then i have a melancoly day when i somehow or other get the notion to google old acquaintances. today i wanted to see what became of one or two bands from my old school, and while i couldn't find anything about most of those bands i found that one, "repent", actually are still doing stuff. it's a trash metal band and i never really liked their music, but in 7th grade i was really fascinated by their guitar-player and also by their lead singer. they graduated that year, so they were a lot older, and i thought they were tough and cool. that was the time when i started to like guys with long hair. which i still think can be very attractive. the (now ex-) lead singer still looks like antonio banderas, just with a different nose, and the guitar-guy also still kind of looks the same as back then, only a bit older, with a few wrinkles and not as cool anymore. i think it's fascinating how your perception of what is cool changes with time.
speaking of antonio banderas, whom i liked very much both in zorro and desperado and once upon a time in mexico - i wonder when he will do a good movie again? here is a little music with him for tonight:
i took a little break from the blog. went to oslo. did something i haven't done for years: read three books in a row. in one week.
stieg larsson's millenium trilogy had been lying around for a few months and i decided i wanted to read them now. when i was a teenager i had a period when i read a lot of classic crime novels. agatha christie. g.k. chesterton. arthur conan doyle. i also had a period when i read a lot of political thrillers. grisham and company, you know. then i thought i'd try out swedish crime, wallander, and that was it. i just stopped. didn't like it. wallander wasn't my thing. instead i started reading romances.
so, i started reading the first book, män som hatar kvinnor, and got hooked. the man was a genius. he starts his stories at different points and with different protagonists and different plotlines. then slowly but steadily he gives you information. a bit here, a bit there, pushing the plotlines towards each other. he gives you just enough info at a time to stay interested. and he always leaves you begging for more. i just didn't want the book to end.
it did end but there were two more novels. plus the movie.
(i also checked the german trailer. it's bad. watch the original if you can.)
there is lisbeth salander. stieg larsson once said that she is some kind of modern pippi longstocking, and i'd say he's probably right. she is fascinating. misunderstood. independent. strong. there is mikael blomkvist. a modern day detective. journalist. easy going. likeable. there is harriet, the mystery. and there are men who hate women. they all are realistic, even though a little overdrawn. and then, it's a complex story. it really is. this is not a small universe of its own. everything takes place within society. that means, a lot of people, difficult situations. complex. interesting. exciting. critical. perfect.
the first part of the trilogy is a story with a beginning and an end. the second one kind of ends in the middle of everything, and the third part finishes the second. so one could actually say that it's only a duo, but the second book got so long he decided to cut it in half. smart. also, the first one is more of a detective novel, while the second and third are more of a thriller, but both genres are interwoven in a way. fascinating.
it's sad the author had to die so early. apparently he had planned a series of 10 books. only three got finished. i recommend them. i also recommend the film. i've seen the first one and liked it a lot. a great piece of swedish literature and cinema.
i love: vintage, clothes, shoes, fleamarkets, bargains. cinema, theatre, music, literature. cooking, baking, sewing, do it yourself. travelling. originally from germany, now settled in uppsala, sweden, after a 2 year stop-over in oslo, norway.
black leather jacket
spineless classics poster
beautiful book editions
kitchenaid, in cream
red shoes
a new teapot
bjørg heart necklace
a pretty noanoa wintercoat
black leather pencilskirt
pierce my ears, maybe
