Tuesday 26 February 2013

I am a Liebster!

Dear everyone,

Val Sparkle of Late Blooming Sparkle has awarded me the Liebster Award ( thank you again Val!) - and although very late, here's the promised post with all the questions, answers and new nominees!


















First the questions:

1. Are you basically an optimist or a pessimist?
 - Definitely an optimist. I always expect to win when I buy lottery tickets!

2. What is your favorite flower, or what flower is most like you?
 - I once worked as a florist, and I love flowers. My favorite is the one in season. That way I can have  lots of favorites through the year. Besides, who can pick one flower over the other?

3. Do you prefer beach or mountains?
- The beach. I've always lived quite close to the beach, sometimes first row! My family was originally fishermen, so the sea has always played an important part in life.

4. What three things do you always have in your refrigerator?
 - Milk (for my coffee), dark chocolate (which I eat a little of every day) and white wine (which I would love to drink every day. I like the crunchy feeling of hard cold chocolate, so I keep in the fridge on purpose.

5. What is your best creative talent or outlet?
- That has to be jewellery. I had a small company for five years, and sold through little boutiques, doing well until the financial crisis hit.

6. What three words would you use to describe yourself?
- Noisy, visible, creative 

7. Tell me about a new blog you have recently discovered that you are really fond of.
- My most recent find is... Late Blooming Sparkle!

8. Which blog post are you most proud of or pleased with, and why?
- The first. It took such a lot of courage for me to write the first one, and add photos. I'll always remember the excitement and the nerves!

9. What person, living or dead, would you most like to have a conversation with?
- My great great grandmother from whom I inherited a necklace, lovely antique dinnerware and a few hand built furniture as well as my nose and cheekbones. I and the rest of my family would like to know the truth about some fishy circumstances in connection to the loss of the family business, which she never told anyone about. Yes, there's definitely some drama here!

10. Do you love where you live?
- Sometimes. In sunshine and warm temperatures it's fantastic. In dark, freezing days with kneedeep snow I hate it!
 
11. How did you first discover blogging?
- I was googling personal colours and found one very special blog that is also one of the nominees.

Then there's the random stuff....

11 random facts:
1. I stopped smoking on the 10th. August 1998

2. Cherries are my favorite fruit

3. My mascara is brown

4. I hate spiders

5. In 1987 I climbed Mount Teide on the Spanish Island Tenerife (The Canary Islands). I reached it's 3718 m/12198 ft. peak absolutely breathless, deciding I wasn't going to be a world famous mountain climber after all!

6. Annie Lennox is my favorite female voice

7. I'm terrified of flying, but refuse to let it rule my life, so I do it anyway!

8. After some really bad experiences with dentists I'm terrified of those too, but I will not allow myself to end up with false teeth in my old age, so I go anyway!

9.  In the summer of 1990 I worked in Tivoli in Copenhagen

10. I turned 29 years old six times, then my friends told me they were bored with seeing the same guests every year, and having the same little canapes on cocktail sticks - so I turned 30-something until I was 40!

11.  Both my husband and my brother are called Michael

My Nominations:

Anna at Four Seasons One Wardrobe

Heyvix at Building a colorful life

Debbi at She accessorizes well

Anne at Spy girl 

Pao at Project Minima 


It is of course absolutely fine with me if the nominees choose not to participate!

Should any of the nominees choose to go along after all, here are my 11 questions for them:

1. Hitchcock or Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy?
2. Coffee or tea?
3. What's your favorite spot to go on vacation?
4. Do we need rules for dressing? Skirt length - neckline - closed shoe/sandals?
5. If you have hot flushes, how do you handle them?
6. What's your best trick to remove red wine stain?
7. What's your favorite shoe brand?
8. Do you believe in ghosts?
9. What's your earliest childhood memory?
10.  Any tips or suggestions on how to celebrate my 50th. birthday?
11. What was your motivation for starting a blog?

Dear Nominees,

Should you decide to participate in the Liebster Award you should thank your nominator, answer the 11 questions, give 11 random facts about yourself, nominate 5, 9 or 11 other bloggers that have less than 200 followers, let them know they're nominated and finally come up with 11 new  (or old?) questions.

I'm such a curious person so I hope at least a couple of you will participate!
Finally I apologize for the difference in the text sizing - you may not need your reading glasses for this post!

Hope you all had fun,

Lots of love
Nominator!


 




 

Friday 22 February 2013

How to style a yellow jacket that you shouldn't wear!

The FABruary Style Challenge has resulted in many new outfits, but the most surprising one was yesterday's - Something old Something New.

I immediately knew I wanted to wear my Great Grandmother's necklace, but I hadn't decided what new item to wear.

In my closet I had this jacket that I bought on sale last summer, and never worn... I took some courage you see!



Very bright and very yellow!



























This is by far the brightest and most colourful outfit I've ever worn, and I can't wait to wear this mad jacket again!

Even though yellow isn't my best colour I think it works with the navy dress because the colour is next to my face.

 Another possibility was wearing a colourful scarf in a "good" colour around my neck.



How else would you style this jacket?







































The sleeves have permanent gatherings that makes it hell to iron it - I may remove them, although I like the effect on my arms (leaving a fair amount of space for an arm party!).


The party

















The jacket isn't really that fitted, so I'm considering taking it to the tailor and see what he if he can change that  (and possibly deal with the sleeves as well).



You haven't seen the last of this jacket!







































Earrings were Monday's challenge. You've never seen me wear earrings! I do have a few. However I always think my face becomes "crowded" when I'm wearing glasses too...



The crowded face
























Maybe it's just me, but I came up with another solution just the same!



Now crowded neckline


























They're cute as little brooches, an idea that I'll try to remember. Best with clip on style! Do you think this is cheating?  Or did I wear earrings?

The rest of the outfit:



Just a plain jeans outfit







































And a close up of the "jewels":



Next time earrings on shoes?












On Wednesday it was my husband's birthday, and the challenge of the day was Boots. I wear boots every day all winter - the real challenge here is to still like your boots afterwards!

The temperature was well below freezing (it still is!) so I wore my warmer ones, along with a festive summer dress and white skinny jeans!



Clingy dress








































Because of the temperature the dress became static electric and kept clinging to the jeans, which in turn became more and more loose so I had to pull them up all the time.



Multi tasking






















My mother called while I was taking my photos, and with dinner preparations waiting I didn't have time to call her later. I guess you can say she has appeared on the blog too!



Bali Moonstone














The pendant is a large Moonstone, and it usually gives beautiful blue flashes, but that's so hard to catch on camera. Maybe next time?


Finally here's today's outfit - which is my answer to the Animal Print challenge:



Just trying to stay warm!








































Apart from the dress I'm also wearing a knitted cardigan, grey jeggings, a heavy scarf, boots - and outdoors, my magenta wool coat and lined leather gloves.

With -6 degrees Celsius (low 20's Fahrenheit) and a bit of wind it's so hard to stay warm. I didn't add thermal underwear today, which I should have!

My brain has most likely frozen, all I can think of is spring, sunshine and Spain! That's why I'm wearing those same bangles again today!



A neutral outfit, who would have thought?






















This is such a long post, but there just wasn't time during the week. Tomorrow my daughter and I have arranged a surprise party for my husband - just the closest family. Hopefully we'll get some good shots of the table.

On Sunday I also plan to do a post about the Liebster Award - so stay tuned!



Will this dress ever see tights again?







































And on that bombshell I'm wishing you all a lovely weekend! (Too much Top Gear)





Sunday 17 February 2013

Fun with scarves and girls

 Val Sparkle has nominated me for the Liebster Award! Thank you very much Val, that's so sweet of you. I'll get back to the award in my next post.



The badge
















Although my daughter is 13 years old now, I'm still seeing my old mother's group. We've all been great friends since the day we met.

 For our 10-year anniversary we all went to Barcelona for a week, just the mothers! Yesterday we met up at Bente's, and I wore a new, gorgeous CC dress, and a scarf that was the challenge of the day in the FABruary Style Challenge.


Too matchy?







































The fit of this dress is just incredible! I'm becoming addicted to these dresses - good thing they're on sale! The scarf is maybe matching too well, it's hardly noticeable at all!

We all had a great time with lots of laughs and too much fantastic food! I'm so thankful for these girls and the network we've created amongst us.


The others are a bit camera shy, so you only get to see me!


























Earlier this week the challenges of FABruary Style Challenge were: Lace on Thursday and coloured shoes on Friday. First the lace-outfit.


Don't I look tired?


























On Thursday I got up at 4:50 am as usual. I went to work (which takes me 1,5 to 2 hours!), got picked up by my husband and daughter at 4 pm, went to Ikea and got back home at 9 in the evening.
 

A bit of PicMonkey fun


























With a nice layer of snow outside the coloured shoes challenge needed to be twisted into coloured boots. So I got our my dusty purple boots:


Bye bye boots

























On the way out of the door I felt something strange in the left boots - like the in-built gel cushion had collapsed - but I ignored it since I was i a hurry. In the evening it turned out I was right. So, bye bye boots!


Purple scarf







































In my closet there's only a few purple items, and no warm knits. The scarf is doing a nice job though, matching the boots, and the cream jumper doesn't get as much wear as it deserves.

The jeans are my magic jeans - those that make my legs look way longer than they are!



This photo was taken before work!







































I'm also linking up with Visible Monday at the Not Dead Yet Style blog where so many gorgeous ladies are showing off their creativity in dressing for visibility.

Hopefully I'll make it round to all the fantastic blogs I'm following, to leave comments, but if not - please know that it's not lack of will!


Have a great week everyone & take care!






Wednesday 13 February 2013

Too much blue!

As I've mentioned quite a few times lately, I'm participating in the FABruary Style Challenge at the Inside Out Style blog, where today's challenge was to be blue.

This is how I interpreted that:


Favorite dress, boots and bangles







































Things started out alright this morning. I'm wearing a new (small!) knitted bolero, my pearls with spinel stones necklace, and shell bangle which match the pearls perfectly.

Then just before lunch my computer gave me a blue screen - not once or twice, but six times - way too blue for me!

I don't know exactly what's wrong, but it's bad! So on top of being too busy to blog the way I'd like to, I may have further challenges ahead, and we're not talking clothes here!



Computer problems is something you can't turn your back on







































The new knitted bolero is from the brand Linea. I haven't tried Linea before. The size seems much smaller compared to other brands, a bit disappointing. But it looks great with blue, right?




The pearls















The bangles



















So I guess you can say I took today's challenge too far. I'm very happy that I'm able to blog tonight, fearing it might not be the case tomorrow - we'll see.

Yesterday's theme was layering - which is a life necessity up here these days. My pink maxi kept my legs fairly warm, with the thermal underwear underneath, see!



Same bangles and boots as above







































This bolero style cardigan is the same type as today's black, only bigger. This one is in fact a little too big - it's just not easy you know!



Office appropriate?



I think maxi dresses are a genius invention! The length make them very feminine and fun in summer, and warm and comfortable in winter. I have to have some more!

See how happy I was in this yesterday?



Enjoying my maxi dress


























I don't look unhappy in today's outfit - but I can assure you I wasn't in the best of moods. Blogging does help though - so Thank You Blog!



The bolero cardigan thing will be back on Saturday...






































Good luck with your computer everyone - hope to see you soon!




Monday 11 February 2013

Flowers in February

As part of the on going FABruary Style Challenge by Imogen Lamport of the Inside Out Style blog I'm wearing flowers today -  I've paired my fairly new double ended zip top with my pink skirt.



Winter flowers


























The temperature has gone down again, so based on my earlier experience with FABruary Style Challenge I'm also wearing a jacket, which isn't that uncomfortable under the coat, and of course a scarf.



I'm also mixing pattern here!







































This top is so beautiful that I had to have some more photos - and my loving husband gladly stepped in to help!



Not sure this is the best angle....







































Statement rings were the challenge on Friday, and I do have a nice one! Sadly the weather forced me to wear jeans again - but with a new-to-the-blog top!



Remember you can click the photos and see a larger version















After having mentioned the jeans it is probably best that I show a photo of them, although they've appeared many times lately.



If you like the necklaces, there's a photo of them below.







































The top is from - well take a guess! It's very comfortable, and would also look nice with my navy pencil skirt.



My treasures!













On Saturday I wore some daytime sparkle, on my coat! I wasn't doing anything special indoors, or so I thought, so I decided to pay extra attention to my outdoor look.



The little white bits are snowflakes.






















The sparkly bits were a golden brooch and a hand crocheted silver shawl, made by my mother. As if sparkle wasn't enough I also added a bit of colour, teal gloves and orange bag.



I've had enough of snow for this winter, thank you!







































Later Saturday we had unexpected dinner guests, so the planned blog post was postponed, sorry! Anyway, most readers would be busy with other stuff, I told myself - and would have better time on Sunday.



Colour blocking outfit







































Above is how I looked as I was headed out the door on Sunday, down to the shops for a few extras - now that another unexpected party had announced their arrival!



Too much flash, I know


























Tomorrow's FABruary Style Challenge is layering. That may be a tough one for those living in Australia, but so perfect up here in the dark deep freezer called Denmark!

There's just one last photo of my flower top, which will be my contribution to Patti's Visible Monday party at the Not Dead Yet Style blog - the weekly party that makes me put an extra effort into dressing every Monday morning!



Thank you so much for your patience with this long post!







































As far as the weather forecast goes we will have snow and frost, and quite a bit of wind. No wonder I'm dreaming of moving to Spain!

Then on the bus home tonight I heard a woman speaking Spanish right behind me. So, if I can't come to Spain, Spain will come to me!  

Enjoy your week, and remember to check in on me and see how I handle challenges such as wearing coloured shoes, lace and being blue.



Lots of warm hugs to everyone!



Thursday 7 February 2013

More FABruary challenges - belt/jacket/red lips

Does it sound challenging to wear a belt? For most women: No, but for me: Yes! Why? A: I don't have a belt, B: My waist is so short there isn't space for a belt!

Did I give up? No, I put on one of the few dresses I have with a draw string. Is that cheating? Maybe, but it was the best I could come up with.



Isn't a draw string a sort of belt?







































I'm wearing all old items here, except for the necklace. It's a sale item from Sweden. The brand is Indiska, a place where the stylish and gorgeous Anna from Four Seasons One Wardrobe also shops every now and then.



Bone and wood necklace




















The necklace is made of bone and wood, or was it horn and wood? I do like the rustic style and the smooth shape. A great find at less than £ 5/ $ 8 / 49,- Skr. / 49,- Dkr. / 7 Euro / ?

The belt challenge was a tough one - so I was glad to wear a jacket the next day, as the much easier challenge of the day.



Amazing how the new scarf goes with so much!







































Usually I wear knits as an extra layer in winter. Jackets seem too heavy under a coat. Yesterday's challenge proved me wrong.

 It wasn't uncomfortable under the coat, and it was just as warm as a cardigan or a sweater. Of course it was totally office appropriate too, if anyone cares about that anymore!



Am I becoming too matchy-matchy?























Today the challenge was Red Lips - was that a challenge for me, at all, one might ask. Not really, no.

If you want to know, the lipstick is Ruby Woo by MAC. I've worn it often lately, it's definitely a favorite!



The Red lips challenge













Since the weather is really rotten again, I wore jeans two days in a row - and I might do a third day tomorrow!

I did pair my jeans with something completely different today - a cream lace top! It's fantastic soft and warm, so perfect on a cold day!



Silk, lace and red lips, very feminine in jeans!







































As an extra layer I'm wearing my almost new silk scarf. I think the pale colours were perfect since they didn't compete with the lipstick.



Strange hair, I know!






















Both my husband and I were late home from work, so we went out for sushi, which made our daughter jump with joy. It's so easy to be a good parent!

I would have liked to write a longer piece on the recent rape stories from India and South Africa. I'm so horrified by the fact that some men think it's okay to sexually mutilate and murder women.

I can't imagine any mother raising her son to become such a type of man, yet some men end up just like that.

What sort of life do these men have? Are they married? Do they have children? How do they raise their own children? How do they treat their parents? Do they have jobs? Are they educated?


The recent stories are what every mother fears - both how her daughter could end up, but also how her son could turn out.

Enough of the heavy stuff - If you want to take a look at the FABruary challenges ahead, head over to Imogen Lamport's Inside Out Styleblog.

See you all soon - have a happy Friday!



Monday 4 February 2013

Denim with style and a visible dress

Yesterday's theme on  Imogen Lamport's Inside Out Styleblog's Fabruary Challenge was "Denim with style". As it was Sunday I didn't have any plans, other than to relax and get a few things from the grocery store. So I decided to focus on my outdoor appearance for the challenge:



A somewhat sunny Sunday







































Since it's way too cold for my beloved old Denim jacket, my only denim choice were my jeans. I added my nearly warm enough woolen jacket, a quite new silk scarf, a designer handbag and soft, purple leather gloves.

Of course I brought my stylish dog as well! Afterwards he was very exhausted - or maybe just tired of being asked to pose for his mom's photos.



How long is this going to take?







































The dark and mid purple with the lemon yellow is a fantastic, contrasting colour combination. I can't get enough of it, so here's another photo!




Purple, purple and yellow - yummi!

















Today's challenge is to wear a dress - some would say that isn't a challenge for me. But our winter weather is unpredictable, and although temperatures were above freezing, it was raining and very windy. So, to fight off the chill I decided to wear some hot Monday colours:



My husband is home, and being slightly naughty!







































It's the not so new and trusted CC dress, that has appeared a few times on the blog now. It's the first time it's been seen with teal accessories, so I'm remixing here. On a Monday!

The accessories:




Teal, turquoise and gold, and "warning sign yellow"



















Usually I'm alone when I take my photos, but today my husband was home. Can you imagine the fun he had disturbing me? Only a few usable photos, and lots where I'm moving.




New lipstick, see?



























I wanted to take a close up of my new lipstick, but it'll have to be some other day. He couldn't resist making me laugh too much so I couldn't stand still enough! Instead you can have another look at my almost new silk scarf!



No make up since it's Sunday!







































My skin is quite problematic, so I like to give it a rest from make up in the weekend, if possible. Sorry for not warning you! But the scarf is fantastic - smooth, heavy silk, I love it!

It's been a great Monday, even though every train and bus was delayed today, leaving me waiting in the cold, and getting too late to work. And now it's at it's end, with only one thing left to do - linking up to Visible Monday at the very elegant Patti's Not Dead Yet Style blog, this is the one thing that I'd hate to miss on a Monday! Please go and have a look at all the gorgeously visible ladies!


Take care everyone, and enjoy your week, no matter the temperature!