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...

new old things

this last year i've tried not to buy too many new things for the kitchen/apartment/livingroom, because we were supposedly to move away soon enough and i wouldn't want to pack it all into boxes to haul it to the other end of the world. also, norway is really expensive, even when you go thrifting and buy secondhand. however, here are a few things i bought a couple of weeks ago:





matching sugar bowl and creamer, to be used as candle holders (the costa boda "snowball" was a guest present form my swedish exchange partner back in 1998). i also got the table cloth quite recently at a thrift store - i love the print!



salt shaker and toothpick holder, in a wonderful art deco inspired stand. the pepper caster is missing, but that's nothing to be worried about since i prefer fresh ground pepper. now i'm looking for a nice vintage pepper mill...

mad about mad men

lovely dotti invited, together with maikitten, once again to a virtual party: aren't we all mad about mad men? it seems, we are. of course i showed up in my best vintage dress, and took my best drink with me.



















my absolutely best drink right now is the kir royal:

1 champagne glass
2 cl creme de cassis
12,5 cl champagne (or any dry bubbly wine you have at hand)
pour champagne into glass, carefully add creme de cassis, enjoy.












































what an evening, and such a great crowd! tomorrow there'll be a voting for best drink, best look-a-like and the-guest-i-like-best. exciting!

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!!

early autumn details

for the fleamarket yesterday, i thought i'd wear something easy and comfortable. it was a warm early autumn day, so i took out my pretty patterned zara pants and a white t-shirt with puffy arms:








































i won this beautiful necklace earlier this summer on vintage (a love story). thank you so much, tuva minna linn!! it is a beautiful, art nuveau inspired piece of silver art by carnosa, which i have been wearing a lot since it arrived. i'm still looking for the perfect sterling silver chain to complement it, though.










































the ring is another recent fleamarket find. i love how it looks like fish scales, or some kind of mushroom fixated in silver. it has a nice weight as well, so sometimes i feel like i have to balance it with this rather heavy piece on my other hand...

africa vintage

today there was a huge fleamarket at the school right across the street from where we live. i got myself out of bed early for this and was quite lucky - although norwegian prices even at fleamarkets still make me stand with my mouth open because i just can't figure why stuff should be so expensive (yes, 12€ for a vintage dress with stains and smell is considered cheap here.. i still don't get it).










































there were loads of people there, especially in the room with the ladies' clothes, so i just grabbed whatever nice fabric i saw and tried to fight my way to a corner with some room to see what i had in my hands. there was no way of trying things on, so guess how glad i was when all the four dresses i bought turned out to fit like a glove! i left with one woollen vintage winterdress and three vintage cotton dresses - the one above included a pretty matching bolero with fabric covered buttons as well!



























































these vintage cotton dresses (including one more which i had to leave behind for lack of funding) must have been donated by a lady with great taste. i would say that they probably were made in the 1960s, but i am not quite sure, one seems home-made and two are done by a professional tailor, as the label says. all of them are made of patterned fabric which seems to be inspired by african batique patterns - maybe the fabric was even printed there?









































just a couple of weeks ago i stumbled over some nice dresses and jumpsuits at asos, by their asos africa brand, and was quite tempted to order one, and i have also seen several items at zara with small patterns in brown tones, batiqued patterns and other native inspiration. these three dresses really fit my bill for this autumn - i'm happy i found them!

ice-cream dress

it was raining today, so i finally got around to shortening my newest vintage dress which i bought at the fleamarket a few weeks back. the dress with the white lace and red stripes really screams "ice-cream!" at me, so it brought the summer back into the apartment...












































































dress and belt: vintage
shoes: swedish hasbeens

three dresses

lately three pretty vintage dresses found their way into my wardrobe:









































a longarmed turtleneck dress with orange strawberries and teal/mint-coloured leaves - thank you maria for selling it to me!










































a 70s cotton maxidress which fits like a glove (at least when i wear heels), with a pretty flower and dots print and small puffy arms. found at uff-underground secondhand. this dress will be so nice for a summer-evening at the opera.. (last saturday i spotted an old lady at the opera, wearing a knee-length woollen dress with a bright yellow-orange flower pattern from the late 60s. i guess she has worn this dress many times since she bought it way back when! and she was such a refreshing sight!)










































a light-blue 50s cotton-print dress which came with a belt in the same fabric. the print features tiny hearts, flowers and little men and women. it is just amazing! one or two seams need to be fixed as well as a small hole, and i need to shorten it (as well as the other two dresses). i found it at the birkelunden fleamarket last weekend.

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!

fleamarket

yesterday i went to a fleamarket at the other end of my town which i had never been to before, though it seems to take place regularly during summer. there were only private sellers which was great, and i made some great finds:















more fabric! the two white ones (one with blue flowers, one with red dots) are actually bedlinen, but i guess they'll end up being skirts or dresses...























some porcelain: i have been hunting for an etagere for muffins for quite some time now and got this one for 1€! the vase (or what it is) totally screamed "iittala taika" at me, though of course it is not. it has birds and trees in the same style on it... and of course, i couldn't leave without another little 50s saucer...























and then, an unread 50s book with a lovely coverdesign, some (nautical) scarves and a belt, though the belt i thrifted at a thrift store some days ago, together with a leather bag which i'll show another day.. i also found a fantastic hat which will be part of my next post!

monki monki

last autumn, the swedish brand monki had this wonderful tapestry skirt, which i fell in love with as soon as i saw it:
















of course when i finally made it to sweden again, it was sold out, but i did not give up and hoped to find something similar or even find some similar fabric and make one myself. and who would have thought it, during my last stay in oslo i was lucky, and at fretex also where i usually never find anything worth of notice: a vintage pencilskirt in a thick fabric, apparently handmade and it fit like a glove. here it is, yesterday:

























skirt: vintage
t-shirt: monki
tights and necklace: h&m
shoes: deichmann