The Holiday 2015 Stocking Stuffers

It's that time of year again. It's the season of indulging in holiday meals (hello, mashed potatoes!), sharing gifts with loved ones, attending holiday parties, and enjoying quality time with friends and family. When it comes to holiday gifts, that old saying that the best gifts come in small packages rings true. I love stylish accessories, beauty products, and jewelry as stocking stuffers because they allow the recipient to add a special finishing touch to their look. Whether it's a furry pom pom bag charm, a personalized pendant, or an animal print scarf, there are endless gifts that exude personality and charm (like this cute cat mug for $20) without draining your wallet. Below are ten of my favorite stocking stuffers under $130 plus other options under $35.
Holiday 2015 Stocking Stuffers gift ideas, holiday 2015 gift guide under $150
1. Smashbox 'step by step' contour kit, $45
2. Toms 'Dalston' 52mm sunglasses, $78
3. Wool blend beanie, $12.99
4. Kate Spade initial pendant locket necklace, $68
5. Faux fur pom pom charm, $15
6. Bow sequin pouch, $9.99
7. Artemis ear crawlers, $50
8. Animal print scarf, $6.99
9. UGG suede gloves, $79.99
10. Fit Bit activity and sleep tracker, $129.95
More ideas under $35:
$28.00
$20.00
$24.00
$25.00
$8.00
$10.00

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.

BROWN BUTTERFLIES

Summer was saved and we finally got our warm days. Still, in the early mornings and at night you can already feel the end of summer in the form of a chilly breeze or sad sound among the trees. But daytime I am enjoying the sun and enjoying the fact that I get to wear some of my summer dresses. Here posing in one of my almost forgotten Trashy Diva dresses! Toodeli-doo.

I actually would have a lot of other things to blog about than dresses, a lot, but I have no time for that at the moment. Give me 12 more hours to the day please! Make it last June again (with sunshine this time) for a little while! Uaaaa!

VINTAGE AND REPRO PATTERNS

 One of us is wearing vintage and one of us is wearing repro;

Dag in my dad's old t-shirt and me in Vivien of Holloway.

FLORAL GINGHAM AND JASMINES

Greetings from the archipelago!
Here I am sitting under the jasmines wearing Vivien of Holloway.

And mathcing my nails with my dress.
The very essentials of life.

This is the Kitty Day Dress.  You know I have a soft spot for shirtwaist dresses and, especially if the have some of that pocket magic. This came with a matching scarf as well. I have shortened the dress a bit; the original hemline was longer.

BABY BLUE AND VERY RED

The combination of soft blue combined with different shades of red has always been one of my favorites. Or mint green and turquoise with red as well!

I have been walking in my Hasbeens that I got last winter; not many chances to do so before summer season. Hasbeens clogs are comfy once you get part the rather painful part of walking then in, for me at least. I am between sizes and have the smaller size in both my Hasbeens so for anyone wondering:; size down.

I am dreaming of a pair of red sandal clogs but wouldn't want to spend so much as on yet another pair of Hasbeens. There are many other quality brands -I have a pair of black Moheda's and they are very comfy - but sadly they all are a teeny bit less pretty than the Hasbeens. DAMN.
Well this summer has not been much of sandal weather anyways so...

But red. I am often drawn to red stuff. But then wear them seldom because they tend to feel too red. It's different with shoes (and evening wear), they can be super red no problem.
I haven't worn this dress in ages because it somehow also feels so very red when on. Which is silly I guess, because it's a very good day dress in a very nice colour.

And you can see what it also has that give it instant bonus points...
The dress is the Runaround Sue from Vivien of Holloway.

The cardigan is the Hellbunny Paloma. I have a problem with all cardigans getting a bit noppy after a while so I tried to be extra careful with this, storing it well and washing it by hand. But it is still getting a bit floppy-and noppyish. Perhaps it is because cardis are often taken along as a just-in-case, stored in or hanging on the handbag and that's what wears them out...

PLUS 16

Plus 16C when in April is good.
+ 16C in September is niiiice.
+16C in May is normal, and +16C in August is a little bit sad because it means autumn is coming soon. +16 in June is an annoying disappointement.
But +16C in July is down right depressive.

And here I am, in +16C wearing the same skirt I did in winter. Nothing wrong with the skirt itself -it's comfy and have pockets (my mantra. That, and the weather.) - but I'd rather be wearing my thin summer dresses and sandals. And be sweating because it's summer goddamit!(OK, it might have been close to 18 at some point of the day but anything under 20 degrees is wrong, just oh so wrong.)

THE POCKETED DRESS

(*if to pocket was a verb, that is. In my world there surely would be use for such a verb, as I am all about pocketing.)

This dress did indeed get so much better for me by revamping the sleeves into pockets!
It will be worn a lot this summer.

FLORAL AND FLOWING

The past year I have started craving long and flowing dresses in everyday, something which I had trouble wearing before. I still find they can be a bit difficult to combine with the right shoes and jacket though (to avoid having me look like I am living 1999 all over again, when goa trance was the shit and we hanged out at Hare Krishna). But I am getting into the lower hemlines nonetheless!

I got this dress from vintage shop Hoochie Mama Jane some time back, late in spring.

THE (ALMOST FORGOTTEN) SAILOR DRESS

Here's me in London last week wearing my sailor dress. I got it from a vintage store when we were in Copenhagen six years ago. I forget about it all the time. (It's a nice dress. I should try and remember to wear it more often.)

BOOTS DENIM AND BOOZE

My new booties have been put into immediate use. Good for them, good for me.

I  reclaimed one of my oldTrashy Diva dresses which I have not worn in quite a long time. It's the "liquor dress" -

 - it has a novelty style pattern with different liquor labels on.
I bought it from the Trashy Diva shop few years back when we visited New Orleans.

Now I'm thinking of letting it travel to London with me.

I'm leaving on Sunday. I hate packing for short trips. (Because then you somehow need more clothes the when you are away for a long time.) I hate having to choose what shoes to wear, shoes that you can bla bla walk around in all day. Well in any case I hope it will be warm; it finally got warm here. Warm and sunny and fabulous please!

SEMI-CHAMELEON

Last weekend I was in a sunny Hamburg partly trying to dissolve into the environment.
(I was also in a very rainy Hamburg during the same weekend. But back to that at another moment.)

DOUBLE DENIM

I have this silly thing that I every now and then want to go for some sort of team outfits for me and Dag. As matching dresses are kind of not the thing for us (I still haven't gotten around sewing a dress and shirt in the same fabric as I planned and soon he will be to old to like it anymore I guess) I'm doing it in other ways instead. So this spring we have both been sporting a denim jacket. And he is very proud of it; "Let's go out and wear the jeans jackets!"

And now these double denims are heading on a little voyage across the Baltic Sea. So long!

PINK AND GREY

 I let my pink Parikkas out of the closet for the first time in years!
They go well with the vintage deadstock knit top that I got from Style me Betty a few years back.

The skirt however I have worn a lot lately, as you may have noticed. I am very much of a period-wearer, going trough my wardrobe in cycles. The skirt is H&M.

SPRING, BLUE JEANS AND LEOPARD

 It's been warm and sunny the whole week and my sunglasses have made it out of the closet and the spring coat is on.

Dag and I went out out to the farm together for the weekend (E is away because of work again). Today we were out enjoying the weather before I had to head into town for my pilates. I have been teaching (as part of my training) every Sunday all winter.

Another thing that also made it out of the closet were my blue jeans which I haven't worn for months.
I have a fear of everything even slightly uncomfortable and always think of pants and jeans as going into that category when these in fact do not. Must remember that the next time.
My jeans are Emmy Design, from Pinup Garage.

LAYERS OF BLACK, BABY BLUE, BEIGE AND GREY

I am wearing clothes.

SOFT GREY & MINT GREEN

  Mint green & soft grey in a re-discovered old sweater. I got it in Milan when I was there performing and also pregnant with Dag.  (That's almost three years ago!! Time flies.)

On yet another quest for all that much coveted space, I decided to clean out my closet and give away anything I haven't used that much and this mint green sweater  -which, even though it is the colour it is has been strangely hard to wear- was about to go, until I noticed it did indeed go rather well with my big grey skirt. So it got to stay.

I like big skirts in winter because if needed you can hide any warm layers underneath.

And here I am in said sweater and big skirt hanging out by my fridge.

BLUEx2, RED AND BLACK

Soft blue and red are one of my favorite combinations.

After a long wait and scouting for a cardigan that would suit everything (or close to it) and not get floppy right away I landed for this baby blue one. It's the Paloma cardigan from Hellbunny that a lot of you recommended me.

The striped knitted top is from King Louie.

COLOURS VS. GREY

Just as I blogged about what a lovely winter we had going on it started raining and I got my much hated wet grey mush all over instead.


But hey, at least I got a colourful nice dress!

(Which also is soft and stretchy = win. From King Louie. )

SEWING FOR TWO

Sometimes I manage to surprise even myself with the amount of things I am able to get done at the same time. Or, in some (most) cases; the amount of things I manage to do when postponing something else that I actually should be doing.

So because organising my paperwork for my bookkeeper brings out the creative need in me instead, I sew a slipover for Dag -

A slipover pretty much the only thing I can come up with to sew him "just like that" as he is not a little girl I can sew dresses for  -he could have worn those kind of mini muumu-style baby/toddler dresses when he was smaller if I'd made him but I think he's beginning to be to old for such. So slipovers it shall be!

I made this for winter out of a warm stretchy soft fabric. Might try to give a pair of (simple) pants for him a go too!

As I was on it I also sew myself a skirt! I always had this cute-and-stupid idea of making matching mom-girl dresses if I had a girl but I can do it like this instead!


It is something of a 1/4-circle skirt -normally I always measure and do the circle-skirt maths, but because I was kind of in a hurry (=wanted to wear it straight away) and since the fabric is very stretchy and easy, I just measured it on me from one corner; how much I needed to get it to cover my behind. Then I sat down and cut the quarter of a circle straight on the fabric. I sew it together in the back and added a two small darts in the front and two in the back for a slimmer fit, and then attached a thick waistband afterwards.


I also added suspenders.


The suspenders can be attached or removed with small hooks for variation.


And now we are adorably silly and matching!

The fabric is from Eurokangas and my knit top is from KingLouie, shoes Frollein von Sofa. I've worn them all Christmas whenever we went somewhere.