My New "Boring" Shoes

Hello, everyone!

Here are my new, "boring" basic shoes. I have been looking for something like this for ages! Made entirely of real leather, black, reasonable heel, comfortable - those were my requirements for the "boring" shoes. I can't believe how hard it is to find shoes, that are made entirely of authentic leather! Even if the outside was leather, the inside was always synthetic, and I just don't see the point - why waste good leather to the outside, when the inside makes your feet sweat like a sinner in church? The older I get, the less I can stand uncomfortable, low-quality shoes.

Well, here they are now, and after all they aren't so boring! They are still quite basic, but I also find them very pretty and the bow detail adds a little bit feminine cuteness and playfulness to the otherwice simple design. I'm sure I can wear these with ordinary clothes, lolita, even in more festive outfits - and also I'm sure I will! Right now I'm quite happy with my new shoes.

I'm even happier about the fact that me, boyfriend and the new shoes are going to spend this week end in Praque! Oh, I'm so ecxited to be travelling again! I hope all of you have a very lovely week end - I'm pretty sure I will. ♥

The Ounce Take Over!

Today was a wonderful day! Even though it rained (a lot), it's finally cool enough to wear frills again - and in such a lovely company, too! ♥

Finally, finally taking out my Cloudberry Lady's mermaid print dress.

Here's almost everyone - I accidentally left Alexander out of the picture. :(  But as you can see, we eventually took over The Ounce completely, and it was lots of fun.

And finally, my friend K was awesome and made this little octopus for me. Bf immidiately named her Inky, and someday Inky is going to be on top of my head, as a part of a headdress. Just wait for it! Needless to say, Inky will be worn with this same CL mermaid dress.

Cups and Cupcakes

I have yet another new set of stamps, this time in a party theme. And this is what I made with those stamps the other night. I felt like a little girl again, colouring in those outlines. It was very relaxing; I knew that if I screwed up, all I'd have to do was stamp another outline and start fresh. And I really like the outcome! If it didn't take so much time, I'd make all my letter sets like this.

Maid of Honour

2th August was the wedding of my friend Hanna-Katariina and her husband T. I was the maid of honour, and the bride wished that we maid of honours would wear the theme colours of the wedding. Those were white, teal and brown. You can see which colours I chose.

I had quite a crisis about what I would wear in the wedding. I have decided long ago that I will not buy a dress to wear at a certain party only - the next new dress I'll buy to any party will be the one I wear at my own wedding (and even then I'll try and find one that I'll later be able to wear elsewhere). If it wasn't so darn hot and humid, I would have worn some simple lolita dress. In the end, my little sister saved me and gave this dress to me. She had never worn it, it still had tags on. First I thought that this dress is not something I would purchase myself, but after a while I started to like it and with simpler accessories I can wear it as an ordinary Summer dress, and with festive ones it can be a party dress. Versatile!

For the church I wore the lace cape to cover my shoulders (and cleavage).

The hatuke - I love that word, in English it would be something like "hatlet", it's not a real word but made up by my darling friend Sari who also owns this hat - and the hairdo. My bf said that "your hair looks like a flower", that's so sweet. x)

Outfit rundown:

Dress - a gift from my lil sis

Purse, hat - borrowed from my friends

Jewelry - Kalevala jewelry, gift from bf

Shoes - Minna Parikka

The wedding card I made.

My maid of honour's gift from the bride: a lovely box, a candle, Liisa Ihmemaassa green tea and a diamond shaped soap bubble bottle (all of these are memories from the wedding), and a handmade "thank you" card, and - this might be the best part - a gift card to a beauty treatment of my own choice!

The morning after the wedding, my bf pampered me by bringing me breakfast in the bed. After that, I had 9 hours work shift, so this was a very welcomed surprise! ♥

The wedding itself was very lovely, and at least in my opinion everything went perfectly. I'm sure Hanna-Katariina will show some pictures of the wedding in her blog later, and actually I didn't even have my camera with me at the wedding, so this post ends here.

When It's Too Hot

... to even wear some makeup, at least a girl can wear nice shoes!

{Dress - Lindex / sun glasses, shoes - gifts / fan - borrowed from Sanni}

By the way, my hair was a little bit wet, not dirty. :D

Now, seriously speaking, it is way too hot in here for my liking. +28 degrees, and the weather forecast is promising even worse! It's too hot to wear makeup, anywhere other than work at least, and it's too darn hot to even think about wearing lolita. It's too hot to get some sleep, or eat that much... This is frustrating. Some people say that we should not complain about the hot weather, because in a few months it will be freezing cold, snow and darkness, but my firm believe is that these people are on holidays and don't have to work! I could live with this weather if all I had to do all day long was lie on a beach under a parasol or at home in front of a fan. Pfft!

My Style Essentials: Spring/Summer

Inspired by this great post Mimi made a while back, I too decided to introduce you to some key points of my lolita style. My everyday style is a whole different story, so let’s not go to that – at least, not yet. And since even my lolita style varies a lot with the passing seasons, I decided to make two posts.

For Spring and Summer, I usually wish to wear soft pastels with white. During this time of year my style alters between sweet and sweet-classic. Around the year, I always love flower, especially rose motifs, and for Spring/Summer I have very lovely flower prints in soft candy colours. My brand choices for the season are Baby, the Stars Shine Bright, Innocent World and Angelic Pretty. For my hair I like to wear either a lot of roses, or just a simple side headbow.

These seasons are of course the time to wear all of my lovely pumps. I simply love shoes, and have quite a collection of them. When it comes to shoes, I prefer a little bit of heel over flats because I find them prettier and also because my feet really get hurt in ballerinas. The last time I wore completely flat ballerinas, my feet and legs ached for a week (this actually happened, I’m not exaggerating). Quality is really important to me, especially in shoes. I try to purchase authentic leather shoes only, because they are more beautiful, more comfortable and last longer. My favourite shoe designer is naturally Minna Parikka.

During Spring/Summer I also like to wear delicate lace stockings in nude and different shades of white. When it gets really hot, I’ll wear just ankle socks with some lace ruffles on them. As for the purse, I use Baby, the Stars Shine Bright’s bag a lot. It matches with most of my sweeter outfits and is big enough to fit almost anything – most importantly a fan, a bottle of water and a travel size bottle of sun lotion.

So, that's what I like to wear during this passing season. What about you, my lords and ladies? Do you have something that is very essential to your style, no matter what the season? Or does your style vary with the seasons, like mine does? Feel free to discuss in the comments!