wooden shoes

i have decided that this years summer shoes are to be sustainable, environmentally friendly wooden shoes. not the classic swedish slip-in ones (which my favourite person in the world can't stand), but a pair with a bit more class - and there are two possibilities:



















a) swedish hasbeens. i already wrote about them last year, but i never managed to get a pair. this year they have a new collection of adorable superhigh peeptoes, which look fantastic. and they are being sold in a store in karlstad where i'll be sometime during fabruary/march so i'll at least go and try them on.













b) mohop shoes. they don't have this 70s-feeling as the swedish hasbeens, but they look so much fun anyways! you get five pairs of ribbons with your purchase, and depending on your mood and clothes you can really easily remove the ribbons and put other ones in. if the five sets of ribbons are not enough you can always get more.

the best thing with both is that they will last really long (basically a lifetime) if you treat them well and they are handcrafted locally (and not somewhere in the far east).
both pictures are borrowed from the companies' homepages.

eco tagg

det swedish blogger underbara clara tagged basically everyone who wanted, and as i liked the task in question i thought i'd take it to my blog:

list three ecologically positive habits you have and three negative ones, plus list three things you would like to do better in future.

so, three environmentally friendly things i am proud over:

1. i use the bike or walk most of the time, other than that i take public transportation. in other words: i don't own a car.

2. i just changed my electricity supplier, from e.on to lichtblick. now i get sustainable electricity!!

3. i don't shower everyday anymore but only every other day. the other days i wash carefully, but i don't need as much water. if i shower, i try to keep it as short as possible.

three environmentally not so friendly things i am not so proud over:

1. i do fly pretty often, and i use cheap airlines such as ryanair. the reason is that there are no trains to oslo from here, or rather, i'd be travelling for two whole days to get there but in autumn we plan on moving together, so i won't fly so much anymore then.

2. my computer is on a lot of times when i don't need it. it doesn't use a lot of energy, but it's a bad habit anyways.

3. i still haven't isolated those windows and doors here, so i guess i'm heating a lot for the birds.

three things i would like to get better at:

1. buy more local food and ecological food

2. say no to all those plastic bags you get when out shopping. meaning also: get better at taking my own bags with me when going out for shopping.

3. buy more second hand or, if new, classics of really good quality, instead of cheap stuff which will break after two uses. this is the hardest nut to crack. definitely.

so, i'm tagging dotti's dots, strawberry kitten, om stil, almost stylish and mybeautyblog. there you go!

make up

well, remember this post? on wednesday, i took the next step and put my little face into the hands of a professional. or, something like this. my friend andreea, who also writes the really smart blog "my beautyblog", offered to show me some tricks and to do my make-up.

it was a lot of fun, actually, and i'm not half as frightened in front of the make-up counters as i used to. she really helped me in deciding what i want, and what i don't want. of course we do not agree on everything, but that doesn't matter so much, as those things are minor points. she is a fighter for eco-friendly sustainable natural cosmetics, and as i do care a lot about what i put on my skin and into my face, i totally agree with her choices for me when it comes to brands.






















andreea does promote, on every occasion, a natural cosmetics brand called dr.hauschka, and she convinced me as well as some other friends with very little efford. so, after a fun make-up session at her place, i took a heart and went to hamburg on a small shopping trip. the dr.hauschka stuff is cheaper than for example mac or nars or bobbi brown or all those other high end brands, but when you start from the beginning they can burn a hole into your pockets.

so, i only bought two things, but they are essentials: an eye-shadow palette (from their stone colours limited edition) and a concealer. the eye-shadow palette features four matte colours, off white, a soft grey, a brown-grey tone and anthracite, you can see it on the picture above. perfect for me. if my stuff on ebay sells well, i'll get powder and rouge as soon as the money is in, but until then i'll have to wait some more.

which make-up do you use? any more tips?

revisiting your wardrobe

highfashiongirl Grace featured a great link in her last post, leading on to an article titled "10 Cheap, Simple Ways To Up The Eco Fashion Ante". while all of them are definitely important and good advice (read them here), i now picked the top 3 which i felt are most important to me and the relationship to my wardrobe and clothes.

nr.3/4: embrace tailor therapy/befriend a shoe repair shop.
both belong into the same category, namely the fixing/boosting things you already own category. the part of a shoe which usually will die first is the heel, so instead of throwing the shoe away, for not so very much money you can get the heeled up and walk away as if they were new. as well, if you realize after buying that the shoe is a little bit too small, you can get it widened a bit so it will fit better.

the tailor (or your sewing machine) does the same thing for your dresses, jeans, t-shirts, jackets coats... fixing small holes and broken seams does not cost much and will reduce the amount of clothes thrown away (and thus the need for new ones). as well, having taken in a bit of a dress or skirt, shortening jeans or adding some length to them will make them look differently and thus feel like you've just been shopping... this goes especially for favourite pieces which don't fit so well anymore!

while i am quite used to shortening my jeans on my own, there are other things which i cannot do. for example taking in a dress, or shortening the arms of a wintercoat. for these things, i surely will go to the tailor (which i for some reason or other never thought of before) in the future.

nr.5/8: buy refashioned, recycled and repurposed wearables/ revisit the past.
both buying clothes from designers who make lovely new clothes out of not so nice older ones and buying vintage/second hand is another way of reducing waste-production and boosting your wardrobe. plus that you can make sure that you have clothes which nobody else has! and who wants to look like everybody else?

i did think for some time about not buying second hand anymore, but also not buying so much cheap clothes anymore either. instead, my thought was to go for real good quality clothing which then might cost a bit more but would keep a long time. the thing is, this is a strategy which just does not work for me, as i definitely prefer to have more fun special things than less boring basic things. so, as long as the second hand things are in good shape and condition, i sure will go that way.

nr.6: cultivate a collection, not just a closet full of clothes.
Start thinking of your wardrobe as a collection of special pieces and shop accordingly. this will so much reduce the amount of junk lying in your wardrobe, never being worn. just the questions "what will this add to my collection" and "how will it fit in my collection" are really helpful when deciding if or if not to buy. you already got five black cardigans? no need for a sixth. you don't have anything that might go with it? leave it alone.

this one has been the advice i've been looking for for quite some time now. it feels like all my thoughts have been going in that direction, i just never could put my finger on it. so here it is. i will try and make my clothes a collection. of course, each collection evolves around something, some theme or in this case, style. think of yourself as the gallery, and each outfit as a new exhibition. it will be a lot of fun to revisit my wardrobe and decide what will stay and what will have to go. actually, i have started the process already, but i will have to take it this one step further.