Buy a New Camera - Check!

Yep, now it's done! We have a new camera (Sony a 5000) and naturally neither one of us knows how to use it. But hey, it's a start! I'm hopeful that there will be a little bit better pictures in this blog, if not from now on, then sometime in the future for sure.

On the other hand, now that I'm used to taking lots of snaps with my phone camera, I doubt you can avoid seeing them altogether. It's just too handy. :D

Some Outfits

Hello, everone!

Here's some recent outfits from newest to oldest. The first one's from yesterday, when I visited my friend Lauren.

 {Dress - handmade by Mimi / hat, necklace - vintage / blouse - H&M / boots - second hand}

And a closeup of my vintage fresh water pearls necklace. I have been thinking (for the longest time) about turning this necklace into a bracelet, or maybe a choker. But I felt hesitant cutting up a necklace that's in such a beautiful, pristine condition. So I decided to give it a go, and now I think this necklace looks pretty good with this kind of blouse. So maybe I'll just let it be and wear it like so. What do you think, my dear readers?

The next outfits are more casual. This one I wore to my friend's birthday party. I tried to get some vintage-y feeling to it, but I'm not completely happy with how it turned out.

{Skirt - KappAhl / headbow - Innocent World / shoes, blouse - second hand}

The last outfit I wore when I took my fiancé out for a belated birthday dinner. By the way, if you have been wondering why I look so weird in the mirror shots, that is because this mirror makes people look fatter and everything else it makes look wonky. I noticed it too late but I still love the frame so I'm keeping this funhouse mirror anyway.

{Cardigan - Seppälä / skirt - H&M / hat - handmade by a old lady / shoes - second hand}

Since the weather's been less wet lately, I have dared to wear my Minna Parikka bunny boots also. Actually I've worn them quite a lot, but it's usually too dark to take mirror shots when I get home from school. I have noticed that when I wear these, people stare at my feet a lot. Maybe they are not used to shoes that are this quirky. :D

Lastly - my fiancé gave me this rose on Friday. There is no particular occasion, he just wanted to give me a rose since he knows how much I like them. I think that's so adorable. ♥

All in all, there are good sides and there are bad sides in not having a proper camera. The good side is that now that I have a better phone, I've been much more active in taking outfit photos of my casual outfits also. It's just so easy with a phone. The bad side is that of course the quality is not as good as it would be with a real camera.

P.S. If you want to get more regular updates, you should check out my Instagram account. I'll post more pictures there, as it's much easier and quicker than blogging. Of course I'm not giving up on blogging, either. I also find that Instagram is a more suitable forum for lifestyle things; some of my readers have been asking for more lifestyle things here in my blog, so you can now find that on Instagram now. ;)

P.P.S. My blog just had its 6th birthday yesterday! What would be a good way of celebrating yet another year of blogging? Any suggestions, my lords and ladies?

Mallihaku Helloconiin 2015 / Fashion Show Models For Hellocon 2015

Hei kaikki!

Olemme nyt saaneet aika hyvin hakemuksia Helloconin muotinäytökseen sirkusteemaisiin asuihin. Kaipaisimme etenkin karnevaalivieraita edustavia asuja, joten rohkeasti vaan lähettämään hakemuksia! Jos et ole varma, minkä tyyppisiä asuja haemme, kysy vain - me järjestäjät annamme mielellämme vinkkejä! Ohjeet malliksi hakemiseen löytyy edelleen täältä.
 
Haluamme vielä selventää sen verran, että myös karnevaalivieraan asua mallaavat pääsevät kyllä poseeraamaan parrasvaloissa - kaikki asut ovat yhtä tärkeitä, eikä kukaan joudu vain toimimaan taustalavasteena. Eräs mallihakija oli tästä huolissaan, joten ajattelimme tehdä selväksi, että näin ei suinkaan ole. ;)

Parhain terveisin me järkkärit, 

Mari & Mimi

Hi everyone!

We have now received quite many model applications for Hellocon fashion show that represent the circus theme. We would very much like to receive some applications for Carnival audience's outfits as well, so please do not hesitate to send your applications in! If you are not sure what kind of outfits we are looking for, please feel free to ask tips from us organizers! We are happy to help you. If you would like to apply in English, please leave a comment with your e-mail address and I will send the translated instructions for applying.

Please notice, that models with Carnival audience's outfits will also have their time in the limelight. All outfits are equally important and no one will have to just stay in the background. One model applicant was worried about this so we thought we'd make this clear. ;)

With best wishes us organizers,

Mari & Mimi

Five O'Clock Tea & Another Outfit From Yesterday

Good evening, lords and ladies!

It's been a little while since my last post. My camera is now completely broken, so you'll have to do with phone quality until I get a new one. Me and fiancé booked a trip to Rome for May, and I am so going to get a new camera before that! So I don't think you'll have to endure the phone pictures too long. :D

Well, today I hosted a five o'clock tea party at our place. I really like this picture with my darling bunny, taken by Sanni. ♥

As it was a tea party inspired by the British afternoon tea culture, I decided to take inspiration to my outfit from there also. My main source of inspiration was the tea gowns of the past, particularly this one - it is so ugly that it goes beoynd ugliness and emerges on the other side as beautiful again, in a crazy sort of way. I borrowed the soft colour palette of that gown, as well as the ruffly collar. Though my collar is pale in comparison, at least it is rufflier than usually.

{Dress - Victorian Maiden / purse - Accessorize / shoes - bought from London / jewelry - Kalevala jewelry / the rest - second hand}

Here's everyone!

Of course we had a huge tower of food. 

And here's my outfit from yesterday when me and fiancé went for tea shopping and tea sipping at The Ounce.

{Dress - Jane Marple / Blouse - Seppälä / headbow - Innocent World / jewelry - Kalevala jewelry / boots - second hand}

Instagram!

Hello hello, everyone!

I have officially moved into the modern time, as I now have a phone with actual, working internet connection. To celebrate this, I decided to finally become cool join Instagram. You can find me by name cremecaranette. There will be an endless spam of dog and bunny pictures, I can promise you that. Besides that I'll propably post things related to food, tea, clothes and shoes, and well... we'll see what else.

P.S. Somewhat related.

I Have Been a Very Good Girl

...or so it would seem, because I got so many awesome presents for Christmas!

A super cute (and warm) loungewear set from my fiancé. I mean, unicorns? Hell yeah!

Kalevala Jewelry's The Heart of the House earrings in bronze, to be worn with lolita, of course. I prefer silver or white cold in jewelry, but warmer tones often go better with lolita outfits. These are from my fiancé as well (he spoils me rotten but hey, I'm not complaining). The handmade earrings with glass beads are from my Mom, and I like them very much also. They'll add a nice pop of colour to any dull, black outfit.

The tube scarf, "ear warming" headband and mitts are from my Lil' Sister, and the most awesome wool socks ever from fiancés parents. The socks have the logo of my childhoods favorite candy, the Kettukarkki.

These are from my Sister also. A pink bath mat, and guest and kitchen towels with beautiful prints.

A spice set for spicing our own teas from fiancé (this will be a new mutual hobby or ours), and the napkins and cupcake cups from my Sister.

Besides these I got some cosmetics, Electrolux Expressionist tea kettle (we can now choose the correct temperature for each tea, it's so great and we already named it Mr. Carson after the butler in Downton Abbey) and so much chocolate that I'll have to invite a lots of friends for tea to get rid of it all. :D So, if my friends are reading this - you are warmly welcome for tea and chocolate. ;)

Well, yesterday we were quite busy, as we had breakfast with my family and the Christmas dinner with fiance's, so I didn't have time to do my traditional Merry Christmas post. But I'll say it to you now, my dear readers; Merry Christmas a little bit late, and I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and got a lot of nice presents! ♥

Something New, Something Old

Good afternoon, lords and ladies!

It's almost Christmas, isn't that exiting? To me, it still is! I love Christmas - and not the least because for us students it means a long holiday! Summer holidays are not counted because most students work during Summers (and that includes me, too), but I like to keep my Christmas holiday as a real holiday. Hopefully I'll now have more time for blogging also.

This time I decided to blog a little bit about home decor. I am a great decor enthusiastic, but as a student I don't have the funds to purchase all the things I would like to. And when I finally managed to drag my fiancé - not so much enthusiastic - to Ikea, he was the voice of reason and said that there's no point in buying any new furniture to this apartment, as we are soon going to move out anyway. I have to admit he was right, and so we only ended up buying some new textiles. But even so, it's far better now! And as my fiancé graduated, we have real flowers in every room. ♥ The Villeroy & Boch bowl is his graduation gift also.

So, I changed the colour theme in the living room & kitchen area a little bit. I've been having a crazy dark blue period, and I still love that colour, but it made our little home look a bit gloomy. Now the colours are mainly white, light grey and just a little bit of dark blue. I like it very much, it's a really calming colour combo. The lace curtains are from Ikea, but the curtains with the grey flower pattern are Luhta Home's, a second hand find of mine.

These pillows are so old I can't remember where they are from, but they finally found their rightful place.

As you may already know, I'm very happy with our bedroom, which has been a pet project of mine (as fiancé agreed I can express my girly tendencies there, I have been able to decorate it just the way I like).

The mirror table is an ideal place for flowers (and candles too), because the mirrors create an illusion of many more flowers.

The next two things aren't actually new, but I just took them out after a long time of not using them and that makes them feel all fresh again! First, the cow alarm clock (it has an alarm sound of a cow mooing).

Second, these colourful lanterns. They are adorable and give a nice, festive athmosphere when lit.

Some Christmas decorations my Mom gave us (Stockmann, Perfect Home).

And our teeny tiny, totally fake Christmas tree with pink and silver ornaments. My view on the matter is that if one goes for a fake tree, it might as well be fake all the way, and thus I chose white over green, because the green ones never look real, either.

Okay, I guess that was all for the time being. What are your thoughts on decorating, dear readers? Are you an enthusiastic as I, or not so much? What are your favourite colour combos when it comes to home decor? And if you happen to celebrate Christmas, do you have a tree, real or fake? Feel free to discuss in the comments! It will be nice to see if there are other decor freaks amongst my readers. :3