details

i thought i'd share a few details from the new living room - the rest of the apartment still looks like it came right out of a moving van, and we've had a minor dishwasher incident which needs to get fixed in the kitchen before i can start showing it to the world...



to get one of those ikea expedit shelves was one of the best ideas we've had - we can hide a.'s workstation behind it and it has lots of space for thrift-finds (for example, it fits our brother de luxe typewriter perfectly), books and dvds.



old picture frames waiting for pictures, and next to it a flower i gave to my favourite person in the world on our first day together. he framed it, which is such a wonderful thing to do.



i found this set in uppsala in march, when i visited a friend and went on a couple of thrifting trips. the creamer doesn't belong to the set but i think it fits perfectly into the family.



a souvenir from the norwegian opera and ballet!



i got myself those roses for my birthday, but alas, they wouldn't survive very long. i'm glad i took this picture before they died (and really, i don't know what i did wrong.. do such miniature roses need lots of water or only very little? much sunshine or not?). i bought both the flower pot and the vase at a fleamarket this spring, and the creamer was a thrift find as well. my mother gave the candle holder to me as a present when i was 16 or 17. i remember that she got it at an arts and crafts market in nürnberg - our family had gone there together and she had a hard time distracting me from the stand with those candle holders so that she could buy one for me. i don't know how she managed but it really was a total surprise when i unwrapped the small parcel a few weeks later.

three finds

this spring has been really lucky for me when it comes to fleamarkets and thrifting opportunities. maybe it's because i became more interested in actually researching the when and where and what i'd like to spend on which kinds of items, which led to reading more blogs about vintage furniture and interior design and things like this. which in turn led to me being more informed and more specific about what i want and what i am willing to pay.



i found an old beat up trumpet perfect for decorating the living room - for 100kr it was mine and i think that was a fair price.



in norway, traditionally most fleamarkets take place in schools and are organized by the school band. everyone can donate old stuff and on one weekend in spring and one in autumn you can come back and buy everything for random prices (at least they seem random and depend largely on when you buy and with whom you pay - some parents really don't have a clue and others know very well the worth of the items they are selling). the trumpet above was reasonably priced, but the man selling it to me could have just as well said 50 or 500kr - you just never know before asking.










fee was very happy about finding her pretty yellow olympia typewriter for 4eur at the fleamarket - i think my dove blue brother de luxe for 50kr is just as perfect. i guess it comes from the 1950s, and since it is norwegian it has all the fancy strange letters, but no exclamation mark!





last but not least, i found a really cool lamp to use as a reading light in the evening. those fleamarkets are very well organized, so i could try it out to see how it works before i bought it. isn't the colour brilliant?

these were three of my of my larger finds this spring, and i think they fit just fine into our new apartment...

märta

ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce: my thrift find of the year! can you guess what this is? i can tell you that she is called "märta", and she is swiss made.





the story behind märta is as follows. i visited a friend in sweden last week, and on the first evening of my visit she showed me this thing and asked me to guess what it was. of course i didn't have a clue and after some unsuccessful guessing she told me. it's such a smart thing to have! she also told me she had found it at a thriftstore and had never seen another one like it since.



a few days later i went thrifting on my own and guess what i found! but, the inner part was missing. so i searched around for at least ten minutes when i suddenly saw the inner part on one of the shelves - guess how happy i was (jumping up and down trying not to show too much excitement for fear of the shopowner raising the humble price of 25 kronor...)! and of course the first thing i did was sending an sms to my friend, asking her to guess what i just then had found =)

edit: cara came quite close. it's a juice press for lemons and oranges and lime! you know how lime can be a little difficult to squeeze and you never get all the juice out of it? well, märta takes care of that now...

winter vintage

at last weekend's fleamarket, i did not only score three very pretty african inspired vintage dresses, i also found a perfect vintage dress for the upcoming fall/winter season. it is woollen (well, i guess there is some acrylic stuff involved as well), very comfortable and has this wonderful dark red colour.


























also, you can make a pretty bow with the collar, and what more would a girl want?

























apropos winter - a couple of weeks back i also found a wonderful vintage winter dirndl at a thrift store:

























it has this fantastic victorian feel to it, with these huge puffy shoulders and wide skirt. and of course it reminds me of the alps, the mountains, things i long for sometimes.










































i also love the silver coloured buttons (they are a good sign for it dating back to the 80s) and the red and black trim at the seams. the dress is a little long though, so i'll shorten it quite a bit (to knee length), and i might need to add some snaps if i don't want to wear an apron with it. anyhow, now i am really looking forward to wearing more dresses this winter!!

70s dresses

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.

last week's fleamarket finds

last weekend i went to two fleamarkets. there are four alltogether this month in my town - evenly distributed over two saturdays. apparently the organisers can't talk to each other when setting the dates, thus creating some kind of business competition which is only stressfull to everyone involved, especially the customers...

anyways, this is what i came home with:












































two great brown leather bags


























an oversize pullover in dusty rose



















girl's books from the 50s


























a lovely glassbowl




















children's-dresshangers from the 50s

also i got this pair of 70s suede boots which i am selling at ebay as they turned out to be a little on the small side of my size...

sunday finds

yesterday i went to a fleamarket here in oslo, at birkelunden, together with maria whom i know from volunteering at by:larm in february. we had a great time and both of us found some bargains to take home. sadly enough (or luckily, depending on how you look at it) most of the porcelain was rather expensive, and even though i was tempted a few times i didn't buy any. instead, i came back with this:

























a very pretty, unused cocktaildress by mango which fits perfectly. it came with an ugly belt which i really don't want to show you. also, it only came with one strap (which you can take off), and even though i searched the bag i found the dress in, i couldn't find the other one. an hour later we came back and -whips - guess what appeared somewhere in between a few pairs of shoes, some t-shirts and a bunch of belts? yes, the second strap. made me very happy.









































a lightweight summerskirt with a lovely cross-stiched border. the length is not perfect as it hits below the knee, but with a pair of heels it should work. also, i plan to use it for layering. nice!

























and a pair of unused grey suede gloves. autumn can come now!

shopping spree

sweden is great for shopping clothes. not only do they have brands we don't have in germany, they also have those crazy sales. ok, i can have almost the same in oslo, where i am quite often, but still, it's not 100% the same.
so of course when we went to sweden last weekend i went on a little shopping spree, mainly with two targets in mind: monki, and myrorna (which is the salvation army's thrift shop). monki was to be the first station and they did not disappoint me. even if i hadn't found anything else at any other store i would have been very very happy with my score:



















i don't really know what came over me, but i went out with only dusty-powdery-rose-coloured items. not bad for somebody who until quite recently said she doesn't like... pink. ok. this is not pink. it's old rose. a little purse, a belt, a tulle-dress, a skirt (which is not on the picture but will follow in my next outfit-post) and a top with lace-trim.

myrorna have become quite expensive especially when it comes to clothing. the only interesting piece i found was a blouse and it should cost 160sek, which is around 16euro, and thus far too expensive for a thriftshop-item which wasn't even vintage. anyway, i found some nice pieces of fabric for very little money:



































this hawaii-style print is going to be a summer-skirt. very beach-y!

then, i still had some time left before i had to be back for lunch. usually i don't go to mq, as their prices tend to be on the higher side, but i thought i might check the sale, because, well, you never know what you'll find. they had a kind of final sale with 50% off the former sale-price, meaning that most things were marked down by at least 75%. i went with a pair of trousers, a blouse and a coat:

























some of my swedish readers may well recognise those pieces. they were all part of an exclusive capsule collection by hanna lindström who won last year's fresh fish (a fashion fair and design competition for young swedish fashion designers). the collection was really hyped when it hit the stores in february, and when i went to karlstad in march i had hoped to be able to afford a piece or two. well, i couldn't. but now in august i could. the battle coat was marked down from 1500sek to 200, and the trousers from 700 to 100. guess who felt really really lucky!
both pants and coat are a little too long for my taste, but that's nothing that can't be fixed...

a nice day with a friend

i went to a local fleamarket and to ikea last saturday, with a good friend. we had been planning this for quite some time, and had a very nice day, even though we almost got soaked a few times by the sudden rain. the fleamarket was not as big as we had hoped, but we both found some stuff (and of course we couldn't leave ikea without buying anything, but no pictures of that today..).

























i found this bags little sister in dark blue. have used it a few times already and am very happy about it..

























i also found a german sewing magazine from october 1962. in very good condition, too.















































and last but not least, two small saucers, handpainted from the 50s or early 60s. they are not really season-appropriate at the moment, but i do guess that winter will come faster than i hope...

bargains bargains

yes, i went a little crazy at the fleamarket last saturday. bought a few dresses, some porcelain, some hats, two picture frames and a little lady:

























this little sewinglady is sadly enough missing a foot, and also, she doesn't quite fit me as she is one size too large. so i would like to sell her to a home where she'd actually get used. she measures ca.94cm around the bust, 74cm around the waist and 98 around the hips. anybody interested?























hats hats hats! and a lovely glass-goblet which looks black but actually is a very dark violet. the red hat you have already seen here, and the strawhats i am planning to make headpieces from.















porcelain - i just couldn't resist those bowls for sallad with the blue apple-halves on (there are actually three of them in different sizes..), and then i got those small soup bowls with the red dots, also three of them, for just one euro, and the graphic 50s roses on the cup and saucer were soo pretty.. well. shame on me. i already have not enough space for my kitchenware, so i really shouldn't have. we'll need a big kitchen with lots of space in the future!

but then, here comes the best: the dresses.

80s 50s-style cotton summerdress. i said i'd never wear pink, but i'll prove myself wrong with pleasure.

























bright orange 60s mod-dress for winter. it has really cool detailing at the pockets and the belt, and i like the little collar and blue stitching..

























white 60s summer mod-dress. just a little on the big side and with a few stains, which i do hope will disappear in the washingmachine tonight. i guess i'll sell that one on ebay, if nobody here is interested?

























this dress is the cream of my finds: a 50s, maybe early 60s dress in charcoal, probably lightweight wool. it is in perfect shape and fits like a charm.















and just look at the little bow under the lovely collar! and the belt in the same fabric as the dress, with a fabric-covered buckle! and i can tell you that i got it for under 10 euro. guess who felt proud!