Tag Archives: Shopping

Dressing the bump – Japanese polka dots

I had a dinner date with some friends in East London last week. And with all the young hipsters running around in that part of town old Mette kinda felt the pressure to retro-dress-up the bump a bit.

Looking in my closet the options were very limited, but then I remembered this dark blue polka dot dress with puff sleeves, which has a very high waist. I bought it ages ago in a second-hand shop in Japan for around 3 pounds.

But the big question was: could I squeeze the bump into it?

I could. So I chose to ignore the fact, that it’s made from 100% polyester and left for a lovely dinner at one of my favourite East London restaurants, Lennie’s Snack Bar.

Here I’m wearing it with a pair of studded ankle boots from Topshop to make it less dressy.

Habitat spring sale, here I come!

The always cool Habitat stores are having a great sale on at the moment. Furniture, cushions, bathroom accessories and many more products are discounted with 50%…..and you get a further 10% on everything at checkout. Last day is Sunday.

Habitat sales are known for being pretty great, and with the discount their prices are shot down to the same level as cheapo IKEA’s = a win/win situation, as Habitat’s quality and designs are just so much better.

So I popped by their store on Tottenham Court Road yesterday to check it out.

I left the shop with a bathroom mat, a stylish toilet brush (oh yes, you just can’t live without one of those!) and this grey Foxglove cushion, £35 17.50. It’s big and fluffy and stuffed with feathers. So much nicer than the ones I saw in IKEA.

I also stocked up on towels. This pack with 2 bath towels and 2 hand towels cost £20 10. The “soin douche extra pure rose” from Savon de Marseille was £9 4.50.

Oh, and then there was of course another 10% off the prices above.

Photo via habitat.co.uk

And I might just have to stop by again today as I have my eyes on this cute Flipnfriends jigsaw puzzle. Aren’t those eyes just begging to be bought? £25 12.50.

Photo via habitat.co.uk

And I need another cushion. I hope I can track down this turquoise Dachshund one £10 5.

If not I’ll have to bite the dust and pay full price for this charming Joane “Love” cushion, designed by Ella Doran. £20.

Photo via habitat.co.uk

All items can also be bought via habitat.co.uk

Baby shopping – Rock onesies

Soooo almost ugly, sooooo tempting….

These are my favourites, especially the Robert Smith one (click on the pictures to buy):

The Cure onesie. Photo via sandboxthreads.com

Nine Inch Nails onesie. Photo via ebay.com

Radiohead onesie. Photo via Etsy.com

Guns N Roses onesie. Photo via stylinonline.com

The Smiths onesie. Photo via etsy.com

Dressing the bump: new from H&M

So, the other day I finally reached a state of “oh my god I don’t have ANYTHING to wear”. I needed a quick fix and didn’t have enough patience nor time to rummage through numerous charity shops.

So instead I headed straight for the always helpful and cheap H&M, and apart from maternity leggings and tights (oh boy, are they comfortable) I came back with these three items in my shopping bag.

Neither of them are from the boring maternity range, I’ve simple bought a bigger size.

First up is this oversized grey polyester *shudder* poncho/sweater. It comes in off-white and dark blue as well. Price £14.99. I’ve paired it with a wool skirt, Carvela wedges and an old plastic necklace from a Wood-Wood fashion show.

I love this long cotton dress because of its crazy animal print-like pattern. And because it was reduced to £10 from £24.99.

Last up is this beige and black striped cotton dress. It’s very stretchy and sooo comfortable. It cost £14.99. Here I’m wearing it with a second-hand necklace and my beloved Shoe Biz boots.

Dressing the bump: second-hand Diane von Furstenberg dress

The observant reader may have noticed that this blog has taken a slight turn away from second-hand shopping towards comfort-food, comfortable footwear and cakes recently.

As a result I now have a baby bump to show for it (and a scanning just confirmed that it aint just a food baby :-) )

Dressing the growing bump is becoming more and more difficult and I’ve had to sort through my closet to dig out everything oversized and stretchy and hide away anything with a waist.

I’m not a big fan of the high street shop’s maternity ranges (too cutesy and unimaginative) so I’m trying to make do with stuff from my closet for as long as possible.

Tonight I’m meeting up with some friends in Soho and I felt like wearing something cheerful. So I decided to see if I could still squeeze into this Diane von Furstenberg dress that I bought in Chiswick for £40 last year (here’s how it looked back then).

I made it into the dress and will enjoy wearing it tonight as I know it’ll become too small very soon.

Second-hand finds: furry hats

Nothing keeps you warm during a long cold winter like a good fur. Especially when it’s wrapped around your head.

I notice a lot less real furs on the streets here in the UK than in Denmark and other Scandinavian countries. This partly has to do with the colder climate and tradition (Denmark is the world’s biggest mink producing country + our strong connection to Greenland has made seal fur very popular).

But I suspect it’s also political, as people in the UK are a lot more anti-fur than in Denmark. (Fur farming has been banned in the UK since 2004, and this is probably a bad example, but just read what the always obnoxious Liz Jones has to say about the subject.)

This is not going to be a long defence speech about why I choose to wear real fur, as most people know the arguments pro & con, and I don’t expect everyone to agree with me but just respect that this is my personal choice, just as I choose to wear leather and eat meat.

And I do get some of the anti-fur arguments, but what I don’t get is the aggressive behaviour a lot of anti-fur protesters display. Throwing red paint at people, standing in front of Selfridges screaming and “setting free” thousands of mink resulting in them dying a slow, cruel death in nature etc. just doesn’t seem neither constructive nor very intelligent to me. It just makes them look stupid and spiteful.

To me fur is not a fashion statement, nor about showing off or enjoying the blood-dripping torture of innocent animals. I just love the way it feels, the texture and the way it protects me from the cold.

My take on it is that I’ve chosen to only wear vintage & second-hand fur and would never wear fur from endangered species. If I were to ever buy a new fur I would make sure the animals have been responsible reared and humanely killed and I would prefer to wear a fur from an animal that hasn’t JUST been killed for its fur.

Enough said, back to the hats I wanted to show you:

Over the years I’ve accumulated three very different fur hats. Let’s start with my least favourite. This I believe is a red fox and it cost me next to nothing (DKK20/£2)  in my favourite Red Cross shop in Copenhagen.

The second one is black (or very dark brown) and from the same Red Cross shop. I paid around DKK 80/£9 for it. I’m not really sure what animal this is from. Fox again?

And here’s my favourite. I believe this one is fox as well. I bought this from a lovely woman on as sunny summer day at a flee market at Østerfælled Torv, close to where I used to live.

The woman’s mother had just moved to a smaller flat, so she was selling all the things the old lady didn’t use anymore. I paid DKK250/£28 for it.

The red vintage coat, milkshakes & burgers + a very MERRY Christmas to you!

It is Christmas after all. And as the 24th is the big day of celebration in Scandinavia I decided to be a bit festive and dig out my red vintage wool coat.

I bought it many, many years ago in one of my favourite charity shops in Copenhagen and paid around DKK 200 (£22) for it.

I don’t wear it that often as red is not really my colour, but today it felt perfect. I took it for a little excursion to Wardour Street in Soho where I met up with the dear husband and one of his colleagues for lunch.

During our stay in Denmark we’ve been gulping down what feels like 10 kilo of traditional Christmas fare. Pickled herring, warm liver pâté with mushrooms and bacon, ham, grønlangkål (curly kale), sausages, sylte (brawn), roast pork etc etc.

You name it, we’ve eaten it.

So today we both craved something completely different and headed straight for Byron Burgers on Wardour street. (Read my review of it here). I decided to go Full Monty, it is Christmas after all, and ordered a vanilla milkshake to go with my juicy cheeseburger. Yummy.

And not we’re back home, relaxing while looking at our non-existing Christmas tree (well, we do have a couple of fairy lights dangling here and there).

Husband is chopping away in the kitchen, preparing one of my favourite pasta dishes and we have two movies lined up in front of the DVD player: The Last Exorcism + American, The Bill Hicks Story. Now that’s my idea of a cosy Christmas :-)

And now there’s only one thing left to say: MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!

 

My new practical black boots

The last couple of years I’ve realised that I’ve become an old woman, – at least when it comes to footwear.

When I was in my 20s and living in Copenhagen I was armed with a bicycle and able to run around in high heels most of the time. My closet is still filled with 30 pairs of pumps and stilettos from that period, as I would stock up on them every time I spotted a great pair in a charity shop.

But fast forward to today and these lovelies hardly ever see the light of day or the pavement. The distances are so much bigger here in London and my poor feet would be torn to shreds after an hour in high heels.

Lately I’ve been on the lookout for practical, simple and comfortable boots to supplement my Carvela wedges in these shoe-abusing snowy times. I’ve had a hard time finding boots like that in London as most of them are too high, flimsy or filled with ugly shiny buckles and zippers.

Luckily the Scandinavian designers have a knack for making minimalist boots in sturdy and downplayed designs. I instantly spotted these Shoe Biz leather boots while in Copenhagen last week. Shoe Biz is Danish shoe brand Gardenia’s younger and cheaper range that focuses on wearable and comfortable shoes.

I’ve been wearing them ever since, through sleet and snow and they’re just perfect. The fit like a glove, are easy to walk in and I love how the subtle rubber wedge adds a bit of height. Price 799 DKK (£90). Buy them here.

Second-hand finds: 2 x simple black dresses

I always get a little bit excited when I spot a simple but well-made black dress in a charity shop. But often they turn out not to be the right size, they’re in a bad condition or the cut & style just doesn’t appeal to me.

But sometimes they’re just right and you know they’ll become wardrobe classics that you’ll pull out of your closet regularly for years to come.

Like this wool/polyester-mix vintage dress, that I bought many, many years ago in my favourite charity shop in central Copenhagen (I used to visit it in all my lunch breaks) for around 6 pounds.

I love the simple design and the way the waist is accentuated with at thin curvy band, sewn into the dress.

And here’s another classic;  a black Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress found in a charity shop in LA a few years ago. It cost 20 dollars.

It’s a bit short so I prefer to wear it over leggings or very thick tights.

Second-hand find: Camel coloured coat

I was taking a friend on a tour of the charity shops in the Bayswater and Notting Hill area last Friday when I spotted this wool coat in the Octavia Foundation shop on Queensway.

At just £10 I saw no reason to fight the naughty shopping impulse, as I actually have been looking for a camel coat for a while. The coat doesn’t have any buttons so I’ll have to wear it with a belt to keep the cold and persisting winter wind out.