beautiful animal prints

I couldn’t help myself and just had to post a few more pictures from The Royal Horticultural Society, all available for purchase as prints, just as the ones I posted yesterday. How cute are those chameleons?! I just love their cool and awesome weirdness. One of the best animals for sure, if I had to make a favorite list of animals that is.

All pictures belong to The Royal Horticultural Society.

beautiful butterflies from Etsy

Found here.

Summer has arrived in Stockholm and with that constantly aching feet because all shoes and sandals hurt in different ways, but of course apart from that it’s pretty lovely. A favorite summer thing of mine is butterflies, even though there aren’t that many in the middle of the city where we live. So to compensate that there are always vintage options to brighten up your summer day! I would love and cherish every single piece of these, all found on Etsy.

Found here.

Found here.

Found here.

Found here.

Found here.

five fabulous friday finds

Found here.

I love marcasites, and I love vintage brooches, and I love animals: this is a post about that. Plain and simple. I chose my five favorites from Etsy, out of the usual abundance, and they would all fit my little collection very well. Even though I am only shopping imaginatively this year (still going quite well, if I may say so myself, and to my own surprise). First is a gorgeous bird from ContempoLulu.

Found here.

Second is a little lizard from Bohemian Trading.

Found here.

Third is a delicate dragonfly from Lyonesse4gems.

Found here.

Fourth is a beautiful butterfly from Sanibelsands.

Found here.

Fifth is a pretty peacock from HollyPuppysAngels.

pretty giveaway starting now!

So this is my promised first giveaway, kindly sponsored by the very talented jewellery designer Daniela Sigurd, originally from Sweden but now living and working in London. I own several of her lovely pieces, and this particular necklace is one of my absolute favorites! It's got a little postcard saying "I love you", a small swallow and a swarowski crystal, and it's completely adorable.



Here's a closeup on my own necklace, sorry that the colours are a little bit off, it's a lot more golden than this as you can see in the first picture. This is how you enter the giveaway:

1. Be a follower of this blog, and in a comment answer this question: from where (not necessarily where you are right now) and to whom would you send this postcard necklace? Easy peasy!
2. For an extra entry, become a fan of Daniela Sigurd's jewellery on her facebook page OR spread the word about this giveaway, and let me know you did so.

This giveaway is open to anyone, the more the merrier, and the winner will be picked randomly. You can enter until next Sunday, the 19th of September, and I will announce the winner on Monday the 20th.



I just wanna show off some of my other Daniela Sigurd jewellery, while I'm at it. I fell in love with this love letter envelope just as much as the postcard necklace, so I simply got both!



It's almost too cute for words! I don't open the envelope and read it that often, but really like knowing I've got it around my neck. You can never get too much love. Okay, that got a bit cheesy, I know ... I still love this necklace!



A stunning piece with one thing more beautiful than the other. I never get tired holding the tiny dragonfly when I wear it, it's so delicate and pretty.



Another gorgeous necklace with gold and pink and mother of pearl. Pretty pretty pretty!



A couple of sweet swallows for my ears, I'm not twittering, but they might be.



And some hummingbirds that get out flying with me on a very regular basis. To see more of the wonderful Daniela Sigurd designs, head over to her website straight away, well after entering this giveaway of course!

On a last note: I would send the necklace postcard from San Fransisco, a city I have yet to visit but have been dreaming about for a very long time, to my grandmother because I love her and she doesn't read emails!

pretty peacock, come fly with me

Going to meet Linda the other day for our little shopping spree downtown, I noticed there's a temporary antiques/curiousities shop open just around the corner from my work. It's usually a small bread shop, on Götgatan by the corner at S:t Paulsgatan, but during July there's no bread being sold. There were some pretty nice things in there, but very few of them had price tags, so I don't really know if it was more like an antique or curiousity shop as far as the prices go. When I picked up this lovely pair of peacocks the guy in the shop told me I could get both for 40 kronor, which seemed like a pretty good deal to me.



I just love them! Think I'll pop into the shop one more time next week during my lunch break, I'm sure I missed something. I did look at a stack of photography magazines from the 50's that were only 10 kronor each, and most of them had really nice covers, but the insides were mainly filled with camera ads, or photo advice, not surprisingly really but not very intriguing either. So they're still there I suppose, if anyone's interested.



Another shopping stop was at Panduro, an arts and crafts and hobby store on Kungsgatan, a place that I love and dread at the same time. Mostly dread cos it's usually pretty busy, but also cos I really have a love/hate relationship to the whole crafts/hobby scene. It doesn't make any sense at all, and I should really just stop, but I don't think I can. I won't try and explain it either, since I don't think I can. That said, I got some kind of cutesey mania this time, and got a lot of mostly pink old fashioned looking stuff that I think I might create something with. We'll see what happens. Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow realising I've gone mad. Ribbons 79 kronor, 5 x 2 m.



These little candylike buttons were 29 kronor, and I'll turn them into earrings if I can, or add to brooches together with the ribbons. I think they're really for scrapbooking, something part of the problem I have mentioned above. I really don't understand it at all, but I guess I shouldn't trash it, cos maybe in 20 years time I'll be doing it too. I sure hope not though.



Some more small buttons I'm gonna turn into something, some day.



A set of three tins in a pretty old fashioned candy store design. I know they're almost a bit too cute, but a mania doesn't see those things, it just wants what it wants. 139 kronor it set me back, but I do think they'll make good use in the cupboard for baking stuff and such.



And since I'm a bit manic about jewellery at the moment I did need a proper jewellery box as well, so when I saw this beauty in Chinese butterfly silk at Indiska for 99 kronor I just grabbed it. I'm trying really hard not to buy all the Chinese silk things Indiska is carrying at the moment, like small purses and notebooks, cos I've got sooooooo many purses and notebooks in Chinese silk already. But it's an addiction, it truly is, Chinese silk just shouts to me that I want it! It would be rather rude not to listen, but a way of going around it is not to enter the stores at all, or to wear headphones and listen to loud music. Or who am I kidding?



I saw this little bolero cardigan in powder pink with black stripes a few weeks ago at H&M, but didn't get it then. I did now when I saw it again for 149 kronor, a classic H&M price, and I'm certain it'll come into good use now that the worst summer heat seems to have left us. Which I applaude by the way! It's lovely to be able to wear clothes without feeling you're about to suffocate.



A pair of nice black wedge sandals that I got at Zoom shoes on Hornsgatan for the very reasonable sale price of 250 kronor. They're actually really comfortable, and I'm always a bit surprised cos I'm still new to wearing heels. Wedges are the way to go I guess.

cute as a button

Fabric stores are so much fun! Especially looking at buttons and ribbons. I was basically just gonna look for some cute red buttons for the black and white dress that lost it's white buttons to the new red dress (a very good decision, proof to follow). Didn't find any red ones that I fell in love with, but how about these dark pink rose ones? I couldn't resist. Not sure I'll use them for the dress though, cos they might be too fancy, but one way or the other I'll find good use for them. They cost 6 kronor each, and there weren't that many left so I got them all. Greedy me.



The magnificent big butterfly button was pretty much the first thing I saw when I walked in, and even though it was quite expensive (24 kronor for ONE) I just had to have one. They came in other colours too, but I went with the turquoise, maybe not surprisingly by now. The black ones I'm not sure what I'm gonna use for, but they were so nice I still got two, and they only cost 6 kronor each. I do have a lot of vintage coats and jackets that could really need some new buttons, I think these would actually go with a few of them. So maybe I have to go back for more.



Got some ribbons too, two different ones of my beloved gingham, and a shiny teal coloured. I'm thinking of doing some more little brooches, but I might just use them in my hair as well. I've been sewing for two nights now, not the whole time, but doing this and that on the three dresses that needed some pimping and minor alterations. And once again I've realised I really should get a sewing machine now. Also after spending a little bit of time in the fabric store and seeing all the amazing stuff just sitting on the shelves waiting to be created with, well it stirred something up in me. It's a huge step though, and I'm not quite sure I'm ready for it. But sometimes it's better to just jump in I guess.



I also got two vintage white slips that I can wear underneath my seethrough dresses. Popped back into Humana after work, cos I'd seen a good selection of them before, to very good prices. This one is more cream coloured, and full length (that I will shorten) for 79 kronor.



And this one, for 69 kronor, is more crispy white, shorter, with some pretty lace around the neck and by the lower hemline. I'm very happy with these slips, and as usual I now want to buy more of them in all the colours they've got. But I won't. Maybe just a black one, cos obviously that would be very useful with all my dark dresses ...

assorted eyecandy

Since I didn't have any cake to put on the cake stand, I put some tasty looking jewellery there instead. Hair flower from H&M in Sweden. Turquoise bead necklace from NSA Gallery here in Durbs. Pretty pink pearls from a really weird shop we stumbled upon during our South Coast trip last year, apart from a small selection of nice jewellery they sold sport and hunting equipment. Green beaded necklace with red rose beads from a market in Stockholm many years ago.



Doesn't it simply look delicious?



Necklace with swallow, butterfly and hearts by Daniela Sigurd, who's a friend of a friend and makes beautiful things that I've got quite a lot of. Golden flower brooch from a charity shop in Stockholm. Red rose hair pins from Åhléns in Stockholm.



These earrings I bought the material for at Panduro, and my talented friend Linda put them together as she saw fit, and I just love the end result. The green and turquoise bead bracelet is from NSA Gallery.



The silver tree earrings were a birthday gift from my husband last year, I picked them out at the nice jewellery shop next to Mooi that I've mentioned before, Lapis Lazulis. The other earrings are from Indiska, in Stockholm, and indeed look indian.



Black antique art deco brooch from NSA Gallery again, unfortunately I dropped it and broke the pin, but I'll get it fixed cos I just adore this brooch. I really like art deco pieces, but they're usually quite expensive. Being found at NSA though, it was reasonably priced. Black teardrop earrings from Woolworths, matches the brooch perfectly. Finally the gold bracelet is from my husbands family, I wore it at our temple wedding. It's gorgeous.

So there you have it, an assortment of goodies that will make any outfit look tastier.