PIN-UPS AHOY!

Here are the official photos of our contestants for the Pin-Up Finland 2015 competition, which I am part of producing this year!

The pageant is a friendly contest looking to give girls interested in becoming a pin-up model a chace to get a foot in between the door and kick off a possible career.
You saw a little making-of earlier already. There is also an official making-of video which you can see here.

Cherry Star

Cherry La Teae

Carissa La Dame

Cherry Jo Candie

Honey de Rose

Ida von Dark

Inka La Vinda

Be Bop A Roosa

Sweet Honey Susan

Fanny White

Veda de Cadenza

Miss Candy Cat

Do you have a favourite?

Photos by Hannes Honkanen.
Concept and styling by me &Tinker.
Clothing by Vintag'Eijas / Eija Mannila (outfits sewn separately for each contenstant)
Make Up: VIP MakeUp Lounge Mia Sirén & Mercy Maybelle
Shot at Relandersgrund, Helsinki.

(Our clothes are mixed from out own wardrobes and not from Eija's.)

The winner will be chosen next weekend -October 3rd - by a panel of judges in Lahti at the American Car Show. The final is in three rounds featuring different (amazing!! - Eija is so talented to make repro and pick out vintage. Swoon.) outfits from Vintag'Eijas as well as accessories from Rockabilly Cherry and Sulokas. PinUp Helsinki will offer the winner a photoshoot.

There is also a separate social media vote going on on Facebook, which you can find here:
Pin-Up Finland finlaists, with styling by the contestants themselves and photos by Marika Kiviharju.

I am a bit sceptic of votes on social media as they usually just generate likes for the ones with the most active friends or followers... but everything should of course not be taken so seriously. So go ahead and give the photo and model you like the best your vote if you so like!

Illustration Friday....on a Wednesday night....

As mentioned in my previous post I am trying to ease my way back into regular blog posts. I am also keen to get back into illustrating- I absolutely love drawing but don't seem to prioritise it enough to ever finish an illustration. Recently my lovely friends living in Germany sent me a sketch a day diary in the post, which I absolutely loved receiving. Of course I haven't managed to do a page a day butI am trying. I am really keen to develop my drawing skills and create my own style so that people can look at my illustrations and identify them as mine.

In an effort to do this I have decided to start participating in Illustration Friday (http://illustrationfriday.com/about/how-it-works). Every Friday they post a new theme on their website and you have until the next Friday to create a piece of art for it. What better way to get me back into drawing! Also it's nice to be guided in a theme,I'm hoping I can push myself into trying out new drawing techniques while doing this so that I get a broader range of illustrations.

So this weeks theme was 'mermaid' and here is my illustration.... pretty rough around the edges but for a few hrs work it's not too bad!

That's all for now :)

My almost finished apartment

I didn't realise, until now, that I hadn't posted any photos of my new flat after my decorating tweaks. Now I've made it more of a home so I thought I'd share. It was a pretty blank canvas to start with....if I was being over descriptive I would describe it as a little white washed wooden dolls house with exposed brickwork up in the eaves of a quaint ivy covered building in a quiet cobbled street-sounds pretty idyllic doesn't it! It is pretty perfect actually! I've turned it into a little haven for myself where I can escape from work and life in general. 

I'm loving living in Brussels- it's such a beautiful city with such amazing architecture and so many nice food places to discover. I've managed to settle into a nice routine- I've been going to the gym regularly, actually getting out of bed and doing things at the weekend, drinking less alcohol and eating more healthily- I've even bought a smoothie maker. All these things sound pretty insignificant but they've really helped increase my positivity! Blogging has had to take a backseat while I've been establishing my new routine and getting used to my new job but I'm ready to throw myself back into it now regardless of how many people view my blog and how few followers I have....my analytics page shows there's at least a few people reading!

Anyway photo time- this is what it looked like when I moved in....

My cute little apartment

This is it now...

My bookshelf, bed and little reading corner.

I have certain items that have been with my in all of my living spaces since moving to London- an Indian kantha quilt which I bought on Etsy, rag rugs, embroidered bed cushions and even my plants! I feel like, more so than most, I attach feelings to objects. These items make me feel comfortable and whatever country I move to I find I can quickly make a home for myself with these things!

I think this is the first place I've felt permanent in since living at home. University felt extremely temporary as I moved yearly; in London I always felt like I was living in someone else's house, and in Germany I was only there for 3 short months on a work contract with a probation period. Now I have my own space, a permanent work contract and a bookshelf! This may seem like a tiny thing but I love reading and have acquired a lot of books and it's so nice to have them on a shelf instead of hidden away in a suitcase.

Flea market finds

There's a pretty cool flea market near my apartment- as with all flea markets sometimes it's full of useless tat and sometimes you find a hidden gem that makes the hunt worthwhile. I've now had to restrain myself from going market shopping as I went through a phase of buying cute furniture and having nowhere to put it! But here are a few things I've bought(above)- the wicker basket is my favourite only 25euros but I'm pretty sure you get similar in home stores for about 80euros.

Every 2-3 weeks I buy myself two bunches of flowers as a little treat(one for my dining table and one for the hallway bookcase). It makes my apartment look fresh and adds a bit of colour but also serves as a reminder to myself that I'm independent, don't need a boyfriend/date to buy me flowers and that I'm doing alright in life....odd reminder I guess but it helps me change my perspective on being single!



The beginning stages of my wall gallery

I'm currently working on a monochrome gallery wall with photos of my family/friends/places I've visited and lived scattered in between hand drawn quotes and pieces of artwork. Again this will serve as a reminder/confidence booster to reassure me that I've got a pretty good life. I think it's very easy at this age to question yourself and create comparisons between you and your peers- why am I single? Am I doing well enough at work? Have I achieved enough with my life? Do I earn enough? The age of 25 seems to stand as a marker point in life for a lot of people. We attach achievements we expect to have made to certain ages and if we feel we haven't obtained them we berate ourselves. I am trying to change my perspective on this as it's more than a little bit soul destroying which is why my little gallery wall is important to me. I'll see it every morning when I groggily emerge from my bed and be reassured that I'm doing okay.

I update my instagram far more often than my blog so if you want to see more images of my new life in Brussels please feel free to follow me: beckyloisburns.

Fashion week trend posts will be trickling onto the blog over the next few weeks in my attempt to get back into blogging regularly!

PASTEL AND PEACHY

Hello! I am in Berlin but last weekend we were at my sisters wedding!
It was warm and sunny  and I was wearing mint green. Could it get any better than that? Perhaps, because my hair was also pastel peach!* (Pastels can make a lot of things better. And you know I like competing with the cake on weddings, pastell-y and fluffy.)

My shoes are Minna Parikka, the purse vintage and the cherry blossom wrap dress is from PriscillaTokyo on Etsy, made of Japanese vintage fabric. Anastasia made me the hair flower by hand a few years back.

*) Was, well, is, still. A powdery peach.

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW

I am changing my colours (and nails) into autumn mode. As usual there's an itch for darker colours and plaid patterns. And red wine. So wine red it is for me.

More colours! The last tomatoes from my garden pots. So cute you'd almost not want to eat th..munch munch nom! I like to mix them red and still green and fry them in a pan.

They got some feta cheese, garden herbs, salad and omelette to blend along with.

Now packing for Berlin; going there to perform in the weekend. There will be lots of pastel coloured things in the bag. Not for me, not for the trip nor the show, but for next week - we still have some work to finish off on the costumes for the Norma book release show; when we are performing the custom ordered numbers based on the themes of the book. Phew!

I heard it will be real warm in Berlin this weekend so might have to lighten up on my plaid-autumn-beret-and-kints mode then. Hmmm.

AT THE SALON

Meep meep!

Here I am at Pinkki Paplari getting my hair done. Because every now and then you need a little variation! Plus some of those yolo-vibes (or something like that) too.

(And oh yes I love aloe juice!)

AT THE STUDIO

Late night at the studio with a cup of the after the classes.

We are very happy with how the space turned out and also proud that we did it by ourselves (if you don't count building two walls which we had a builder do), stage and all!

Here's how it looked before:

And now:

(Our landlord said he was surprised too see what we managed to do with the space.)

Here in action rehearsing with one of our performing troupes!

The dressing room. We also have another smaller mirrored rehearsal space with storage for our costumes but that space is still just filled with said costumes, suitcases and props everywhere waiting for some law and order...

One thins I still find hard to believe is that we managed to do this without any external funding.  That was never the plan though, but as we did not start a new business - we've been doing all of this on a smaller scale for years - but was going about things the normal way while setting the studio up, and as we stumbled across the space rather quickly (suitably in the same building we have been in for years) we just did not have the time to get any. We had worked hard the years before this that made it possible - now it's time work even harder -and hope- it will continue to be so!

I will confess that the start has been rather slow though. And that is just due to ourselves. Getting our website up and running would be rather (read:very) important (NO it is still not properly up in it's final form, I know!), and doing actual marketing as well, not just running everything trough Facebok as we've done (and done well) the past years, is next on our agenda. After Along with traveling to Berlin to perform next week, doing the once-in-a-lifetime custom ordered show for Sofi Oksanen's release of her new novel Norma and producing the Pin-Up Finland competition. Oh yeah and setting up Spectac-O-Rama for this year! The autumn of stress.

But. Yes. Our studio is in Lauttasaari and we have classes from Monday to Thursday with special courses those weekends we are not away performing! Buy your classes *here*  and schedule+book them **here**! Pilates on Tuesday mornings and Thursday nights, Seasonal Yoga the other way around and burlesque dance classes every night! It is also possible to book the studio for personal practice (daytime, evenings available in the smaller room) or for teaching during the weekends.

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW - MESSY, MAGAZINE AND MOROTSKAKA

Trying to figure out what to wear today.
Everything is a mess at home and it seems I have somehow managed to magically hide away all my autumn clothes. The agony of living at two addresses.

But there has been times that it was not messy at home. Proof of that in the latest issue of Glorian Koti for example, where there is a short feature on the farm house. The pictures were taken a year ago.

 Breakfast.

Includes this too.
Carrot-zuccini-date cake (=breakfast worthy.) Not sure if it's very good or just ok; the price you pay when you never measure and just randomly throw things in a pot and stir and bake. After a night in the fridge this could be quite chunky though.

SAY CHEESE! / THE PIN-UP FINLAND FINALISTS' PHOTO SHOOT

Last week we organised the official photo shoot for the twelve Pin-Up Finland finalists!
As you  may remember from earlier, I am part of producing and hosting the competition this year,

The day started at our studio for hair and make up. The contestants arrived from all corners of the country for their big day. On big shoots like this, there is always a lot of waiting.

We are very proud to have Béseame Cosmetics as one of our sponsors for the finals!

Make up artists Mercy and Mia in full action.

Me rolling some hair. (Photo by @ruskarieban)

We had one shoot on location in our studio. But for our main calendar pictures we headed elsewhere!

Here are our fabulous  outfits for the ladies, put together by our clothing sponsor Vintag'Eijas! Vintag'Eijas is a vintage store as well a seamstress (that I am sure many of you have heard of in blogs and such, even if you may not be Finnish) and she had done an amazing job making outfits for the girls!

And then we headed over to our actual location; the old lighthouse ship Relandersgrund! It serves as a café nowadays. Worth a stop if you are in town; it's details and the  surroundings are very nice.

 And then it started raining...

 Waiting out the rain on board.

So on to plan B, taking the rest of the pictures inside the ship.

 Hannes at work.

At the end of the* (very long) day it was time for us to get out of the comfy wear and into the little shorts and do one last round of posing ourselves. Here's an instagram shot of that, the real pictures are to be revealed later.

(...And we've seen them already and they are just great! Meep meep!)

*) well, almost at the end of. We still had to dig out staples (from posters) from and paint one wall back at our old studio. Phew!