I have been relatively blessed lately and my sleep hasn't been as horrible as usual. But today I woke up from a particularly nasty nightmare that involved getting married to someone I never want to see again. Fun, right? O.<

Work and Ladurée

Another update! :D I'm being a good girl. Well, sort of. I'm trying to keep this blog up to date but lately I have had so much to do and I just haven't had time to sit and write anything. It's much easier just to toss up some pictures on Tumblr or on Facebook, to be honest...

But anyway! Here it is, a little peek into my life right now. 

I've spent the last several weeks working on several commissions so first up comes a bunch of hats that I have been or am working on :3

This black tricorne and the little hairclip right below were commissions from a mother and daughter, something I thought was very sweet :) The daughter is also a friend of mine so I definitely wanted to make both these things look good. (Even if they ended up being terribly late ._.  Damn you, common cold!)

Either way, I'm really happy with them. The hairclip was made to match this dress from Innocent World in Grey/Beige. I think I pulled it off quite nicely. 

Next is a hat that is much, muuuch bigger than what I usually do and it's not finished yet. Not to mention it is kind of a pain to work with. :P But now that the base is done I can move onto the fun stuff. The decorations!  

Oh, this one I love. A lot. It was amazing fun to work on and it turned out looking absolutely fantastic. If I do say so myself. Black, emerald green, brass and a whole lot of feathers. What's not to love? :) Not to mention all the cogs and the chains and... Everything. I kind of wanted to keep this one for myself and was very sad to have to send it off :P 

This one is still a work in progress in the picture but I finished off yesterday. I'm completely unused to doing anything that is this Sweet and erhm.... so PINK. But I think it looks pretty good :3 It's too much for my own personal taste but I still managed to put my touch on it. 

Lastly is this little commission I finished off last week. It's a creamy tricorne that is quite a lot smaller than the pirate hats I usually make. It's very simple and classy and I hope the person who commissioned it will like it :)

Now onto something a little bit different. Here comes several hats and other things that are a part of my own personal collection. Most of these had never gotten any good pictures so I took the time yesterday to have a little "shoot" outside my house. X3

I finished this quite a long time ago now, several weeks ago at least, and I have been dying to get good pictures of it ever since. But for some reason I never got around to it. Anyway, here it is! My little experiment of a bolero with a matching hat. 

I absolutely adore the purple color. It's just so lovely. 

This bolero was one of the first things I had sewn in months! I don't get around to sewing very often. It's a shame but eh... most times I just don't have the energy for it.

I found the perfect purple flowers to go with this at a local craftshop so I got one to put on the bolero and another one for the hat. 

Oh, I had recently gotten some veiling in the mail too so I wanted to try to work with that too.

I am SO happy with the outcome. I want to make more sets like this now. :3

This one is a remake of the...  second hat I ever made? Yes, I think that's right. The old hat was getting so ugly and dusty, not to mention my skills were just about nonexistent back then. So I decided it was time to make a whole new base that I then decorated with the same flower and feather I had used to the old one. Waste not, right? :) I'm really happy with it and I'm glad to finally have a black topper I can wear in public again. 

Ah, this one is probably familiar to you all :) It's my absolute favorite hat and I've worn it with several different outfits since it was made last fall. 

This one was made an even longer time ago but I never got around to take any pictures of it. It was made to match my striped Victorian outfit, something I also need better pictures of. Together with the skirt and jacket it looks absolutely amazing!

Right then, that's all of the hats ;) So far, anyway. I have more on the way ._. Dear lord, I've been so swamped with orders and work lately X3 But stressed as I've been, new orders means more money coming in and that means I can order new materials. Or in this case flowers! I got a HUGE package filled with lovely silk flowers in the mail the other day. 

The picture isn't the best but the flowers are really beautiful. And definitely worth the 260 SEK I paid for them all, including shipping. Now I can't wait until I have some free time when I can start making more flower combs and veils. 

Onto more personal things, I suppose :3 Here's an outfit shot from last saturday before I went to work. I love, love, love that dress. (And just finished a matching hat!) I really need more Mary Magdalene dresses. Period.

I've been getting out a lot more than usual lately. It's been mostly to buy hat materials but a couple of days ago I went out to see my friend Hillevi. We talked a bit about awesome photoshoot plans with my hats but mostly she listened while I ranted about a whole bunch of things, including Diablo III. Luckily, she doesn't seem to mind. XD It's just that I don't get out very often and when I do I feel a very strong need to get things off my chest that I've been thinking about the whole time I've spent home alone. 

Anyway, after having some tea at a favorite café we went on a little trip of exploration to try to find the Ladurée shop that recently opened in Stockholm. 

Needless to say, we found it ;)

We had both been craving icecream that whole HOT day so we splurged a bit on some very expensive, but oh so good Ladurée sorbet icecream with little macarons on top. I chose raspberry, Hillevi took apricot and boy was it delicious!

And we have at last come to the end. I probably have a lot more things to rant about but the sun is shining outside and I still have work to do so I really can't be bothered writing anything else. ;)

Until next time!

17 Mai

First of all I just want to show off my new parasols/umbrellas I got in the mail the other day. They are lovely and big and will definitely help keep me nice and cool this summer. 

They are both from Lisbeth Dahl and I'm really happy with the quality. Not to mention now that I've lost my old black parasol and my old white one is getting more worn by the day I really needed new ones.

Right, now that that's done I can move on to today. :3 It's the 17th of May, Norway's National Day. My mother and I both have norwegian blood so we usually celebrate along with the other Norwegians in Stockholm. There's a big parade-thing every year that goes from the center of town to Skansen, a sort of outdoor museum/zoo. 

Mother dear :3

There were "Coffee Cows" selling coffee along the way. They were cute X3

My outfit :3 As close to Red, White and Blue as I could get.
Dress, shoes, bag: Alice and the Pirates
Bolero, Necklace: Innocent World
Hat: Imperial Fiddlesticks Emporium
Parasol: Lisbeth Dahl

This is where the magic happens~!

Right, so ever since I got my absolutely WONDERFUL antique desk and started arranging my work space in my room last year I have wanted to get good, or at least semi-good, pictures of it. Sadly, other things kept getting in the way and/or the desk was SO cluttered and things were thrown everywhere so that there wouldn't have been possible to get good pictures even if I tried. I'm really good at creating a creative CHAOS when I work and it usually takes me several months to get to the point where I feel I can start tidying up. 

*inhales*

Now, however, I got some sort of... I dunno super powers or something. Despite being sick and feeling generally shitty I somehow got the energy and will to start cleaning up my mess. I'm not QUITE done yet but most of my work space is all neat and tidy now so I thought I'd finally get those pictures taken.

They're not wonderful or anything but eh... at least they give you an idea of what it looks like where the hatting magic happens! :3

So, my desk. With hats, hat boxes, material boxes, my sign, some flowers and feathers... You get the general idea. 

Oh and a lint roller! Never forget that. I don't have enough hat boxes to keep all my hats stowed away so I need something to help keep the dust off them. 

Hats. Most of them are my own save for the black tricorne in the top right corner. That one is a commission in progress. Also, most of the hats that are mine, my own, my precious... erhm yes. Most of them are years and years old and therefore look like crap. Someday I'm gonna scrap them, take the decorations and make brand new hats for myself. Someday... when I don't have a million other things to do >.>...

Material boxes, my sign and some half done hats and corsages. 

Right, this part is exciting! This is the corner where I keep almost ALL of my materials such as flowers, ribbons, fabric, leaves etc. I stripped out that part of my bookshelf just to make room for all the boxes. The flowers are all sorted according to color so that I can find the ones I want more easily.

The view from my window. It's actually quite pretty in the summer/spring. Not so nice on dreary, rainy autumn days though. 

Most of my workspace with my bed visible on the right hand side. 

One last photo now... just because I ADORE my desk. It's enormous and amazing. Also hidden under it is my wonderful antique-looking phone. It's actually modern and should work today, but it doesn't. Someday I'm going to have someone take a look at it to try to make it work. Because it's gorgeous. 

Well, that's all for now. :3 Now I'm going to get back to work. More things need to be put into their places and then I have some commissions to work on.